Essa Moosa (8 February 1936 – 26 February 2017) was a judge in the

Supreme Court of South Africa The Supreme Court of South Africa was a superior court of law in South Africa from 1910 to 1997. It was made up of various provincial and local divisions with jurisdiction over specific geographical areas, and an Appellate Division which was t ...

. During the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

era, he was active as a lawyer defending political detainees, and was a founding member of the anti-apartheid National Association of Democratic Lawyers (Nadel).

Biography

Moosa was born in Cape Town and was educated at

Athlone High School Athlone High School is a public, co-educational high school in Silvertown, Athlone, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. History The school was founded in 1947 by the South African poet, author and educator, S. V. Petersen, who remained at th ...

where he matriculated in 1954. He obtained a Diploma in Law at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

in 1960, after which he was admitted as an attorney in 1962. His career as a judge started in 1998 when he acted as a judge, first at the

Free State Division The Free State Division of the High Court of South Africa (previously named the Orange Free State Provincial Division and the Free State High Court, and commonly known as the Bloemfontein High Court) is a superior court of law with general jurisd ...

and then the

Western Cape Division The Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa (previously named the Cape Provincial Division and the Western Cape High Court, and commonly known as the Cape High Court) is a superior court of law with general jurisdiction over the ...

. In 1997, he got involved supporting the Kurdish freedom movement and encouraged several politicians of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...

(ANC) to take part in the Musa Anter peace train. He was permanently appointed to the Cape bench on 18 May 1999. Moosa was actively involved in human rights issues and represented the United Democratic Front and the

in a number of cases. He was also a member of the ANC Constitutional Committee. In 2004 he was awarded the

Order of the Disa The Order of the Disa (plant), Disa is a provincial-level order issued by the Department of the Premier of Western Cape Province. It was created by the Provincial Honours Act 9 of 1999, and is enshrined in Section 6 (1) of the Western Cape Provincia ...

by the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

Province. He died on February 26, 2017.Struggle veteran Judge Essa Moosa dies
/ref>

References

1936 births 2017 deaths South African judges Anti-apartheid activists People from Cape Town {{SouthAfrica-law-bio-stub