Pierre Francois de Vos (born 29 June 1963) is a South African
constitutional law
Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in fe ...
scholar.
Early life
De Vos was born in
Messina,
Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal.
* South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...
, (now Musina,
Limpopo
Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while the provincial legislature is ...
) and
matriculated
Matriculation is the formal process of entering a university, or of becoming eligible to enter by fulfilling certain academic requirements such as a matriculation examination.
Australia
In Australia, the term "matriculation" is seldom used now. ...
from Pietersburg High School in Pietersburg (now known as
).
His sister, Anne-Marie, is a well-known
advocate.
He obtained a
BComm
A Bachelor of Commerce (abbreviated BComm or BCom; also, ''baccalaureates commercii'') is an undergraduate degree in business, usually awarded in Canada, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ireland, New Zealand, Ghana, South Africa, Myanmar, ...
(
Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
), an
LLB
Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...
and an
LLM
A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...
(
cum laude) from
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...
, an LLM from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and an
LLD from the
University of the Western Cape
The University of the Western Cape (UWC) is a public research university in Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. The university was established in 1959 by the South African government as a university for Coloured people only. Other un ...
.
Career
De Vos taught law at the University of the Western Cape from January 1993 to July 2009, when he was appointed the Claude Leon Foundation Chair in Constitutional Governance 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 ...
. He was appointed Deputy Dean of the UCT Law Faculty in January 2011.
He has published articles on
sexual orientation discrimination
Sexual orientation discrimination (also known as sexualism) is discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or sexual behaviour.
Sexual bias
Sexual orientation discrimination often comes up in the context of employment actions. It usually ...
and
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
, the enforcement of
social and economic rights,
HIV/AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...
, the construction of
race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
,
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonis ...
and racial discrimination and other
human rights
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...
issues.
Since September 2006, de Vos has written a
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...
, ''Constitutionally Speaking'', which deals with South African social and political issues from a constitutional law perspective. He is also a contributor to ''
Thought Leader
A thought leader has been described as an individual or firm recognized as an authority in a specific field and also as business jargon.
Meanings Go-to expert
From the perspective of a thought leader as the 'go-to expert', being a thought leader ...
'', a news and opinion website owned by the South African newspaper ''
Mail & Guardian
The ''Mail & Guardian'' is a South African weekly newspaper and website, published by M&G Media in Johannesburg, South Africa. It focuses on political analysis, investigative reporting, Southern African news, local arts, music and popular cult ...
''. His blog posts are simultaneously published on the ''
Daily Maverick
''Daily Maverick'' is a South African daily online publication and weekly print newspaper, with offices in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Its readership is spread across South Africa and the world, with approximately 8 million readers per month. I ...
'' website. He is a regular media commentator on political and legal events in South Africa and has appeared on
SABC
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's stat ...
and
e.tv
e.tv (commonly referred to on-air as e) is the first and only privately owned free-to-air television station in South Africa. It is the fifth terrestrial television channel in the country, following three channels that are operated by the sta ...
programmes, various South African radio stations, and on the
BBC World Service and
CNN International
CNN International (CNNI, simply branded on-air as CNN) is an international television channel that is owned by CNN Global. CNN International carries news-related programming worldwide; it cooperates with sister network CNN's national and inte ...
.
He is the chairperson of the Board of the Aids Legal Network, a non-governmental human rights organisation, and also served as a board member of the Triangle Project, a non-profit
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...
advocacy organisation.
He is also a member of the advisory council of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution.
In February 2004, in the first case considered by the Equality Court set up in terms of the
Constitution of South Africa
The Constitution of South Africa is the supreme law of the Republic of South Africa. It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the republic, it sets out the rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of the Gover ...
, de Vos and his partner won a case against the owners of a gay bar in Cape Town after the owners admitted that they had discriminated against de Vos's partner because of his race. As part of a settlement, which was made an order of court, the bar was ordered to pay
R10,000 to Siyazenzela, a non-profit organisation nominated by de Vos's partner.
Political views
In 2008 de Vos became embroiled in a spat with
Helen Zille
Otta Helene Maree (''née'' Zille ; born 9 March 1951), known as Helen Zille, is a South African politician. She has served as the Chairperson of the Federal Council of the Democratic Alliance since 20 October 2019. From 2009 until 2019, she w ...
, the leader of the official opposition in South Africa, after Zille had criticised Judge Nathan Erasmus for chairing a
Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate wrongdoing by her party. Zille had said that "some judges allow themselves to be abused and I am afraid Nathan Erasmus is one of them". Writing on ''Thought Leader'', de Vos took issue with Helen Zille, saying her party, the
Democratic Alliance, was being "hypocritical" in trying to shut down the commission and that her comment about Justice Erasmus was "politically stupid" and served to undermine the independence of the judiciary. The
Western Cape High Court
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 th ...
eventually declared the Commission unconstitutional, but said its judgment should not be read to "suggest that Erasmus J was in any way a party to" the nefarious conduct of the then Premier.
In June 2009, after a radio debate between de Vos and
Paul Ngobeni, a supporter of Judge President of the Cape,
John Hlophe, de Vos was accused of being a racist who hated Hlophe. "This guy will be joining a group of gangsters who make Hlophe their do-or-die issue. Whites want to entrench themselves in the last unelected branch of government – the judiciary," said Ngobeni. De Vos denied the charge.
In 2009, de Vos was critical of the government's attempt to evict residents of
Joe Slovo Informal Settlement
Joe Slovo is an informal settlement in Langa, Cape Town. Like many other informal settlements, it was named after former housing minister and anti-Apartheid activist, Joe Slovo. With over 20,000 residents, Joe Slovo is one of the largest inform ...
in
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
and rulings upholding their eviction by the
Western Cape High Court
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 th ...
and the
Constitutional Court of South Africa. In 2010 he was similarly critical of the decision by the
City of Cape Town
The City of Cape Town ( af, Stad Kaapstad; xh, IsiXeko saseKapa) is the metropolitan municipality which governs the city of Cape Town, South Africa and its suburbs and exurbs. As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 3,740,026.
The remot ...
to build open toilets for the residents of Makhaza, a
township
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...
in Cape Town. He has published many articles in support of the social movement
Abahlali baseMjondolo
Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM, , in English: "the residents of the shacks") is a socialist shack dwellers' movement in South Africa which organises land occupations, builds communes , including commentary on the legal aspects of their occupation of land in
Macassar and the attack on the movement in Kennedy Road.
In August 2011, De Vos came out in support of a call by South African Archbishop Emeritus
Desmond Tutu's for a once-off
wealth tax
A wealth tax (also called a capital tax or equity tax) is a tax on an entity's holdings of assets. This includes the total value of personal assets, including cash, bank deposits, real estate, assets in insurance and pension plans, ownershi ...
imposed on those who benefited from
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 ...
. He stated that the tax would be "a small gesture towards reconciliation and redress". He criticised the
FW de Klerk Foundation
The FW de Klerk Foundation is a nonpartisan organisation that was established in 1999 by former South African president Frederik Willem de Klerk.
It promotes activities in "multi-community" countries and seeks to nurture the democracy of South A ...
for rejecting the idea of a reparations tax, and for saying in a media statement that it would be unconstitutional to do so, writing on his blog: "Such measures are not 'reverse discrimination' or 'positive discrimination' but are rather 'integral to the reach of our equality protection'".
In November 2015, De Vos wrote several articles arguing in favour of a change to the language policy at the
University of Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...
to eradicate the indirect racial discrimination imposed by the use of Afrikaans at the university.
Other writing
De Vos is also the author of a novel, ''Slegs Blankes / Whites Only'', written in
Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
. It tells the story of a young
white South African
White South Africans generally refers to South Africans of European descent. In linguistic, cultural, and historical terms, they are generally divided into the Afrikaans-speaking descendants of the Dutch East India Company's original settler ...
man coming to terms with his father's involvement in an
apartheid-era police hit squad.
Publications
Fiction
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Non-fiction
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Recent academic articles
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* Index page of Public Law Review linked.
* Full article including English abstract linked.
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:de Vos, Pierre
1963 births
Living people
People from Musina Local Municipality
White South African people
South African LGBT people
South African atheists
South African jurists
Academic staff of the University of the Western Cape
Academic staff of the University of Cape Town
Stellenbosch University alumni
University of the Western Cape alumni
Columbia Law School alumni
South African bloggers