Sisi Virginia Khampepe (born 8 January 1957
) is a retired judge of the
Constitutional Court of South Africa
The Constitutional Court of South Africa is a supreme court, supreme constitutional court established by the Constitution of South Africa, and is the apex court in the South African judicial system, with general jurisdiction.
The Court was fi ...
.
Background
Khampepe was born in
Soweto
Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...
. She obtained her B Proc from the
University of Zululand
The University of Zululand or UniZulu is the only comprehensive tertiary educational institution north of the Tugela River in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Its new status is in accordance with South Africa's National Plan for Higher Education ...
and her LLM degree at
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
. She was admitted as an
attorney in 1985 and worked at
Bowman Gilfillan
Bowmans, previously Bowman Gilfillan, is a law firm based in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, with offices in Cape Town, Dar es Salaam, Durban, Kampala, Lilongwe, Lusaka, Moka District, Moka and Nairobi. It is one of the "Big Five law firms ...
in private practice, specialising in labour law.
In 1995 she was appointed a member of the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...
.
From 1999 she was Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions in the
National Prosecuting Authority
The National Prosecution Authority (NPA) is the agency of the South African government responsible for state prosecutions. Under Section 179 of the Constitution and the National Prosecuting Authority Act of 1998, which established the NPA in 199 ...
.
Appointments
In 2000 Khampepe was appointed as a judge of the
Transvaal Provincial Division
The Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law which has general jurisdiction over the South African province of Gauteng and the eastern part of North West province. The main seat of the division is at Pretoria, ...
of the
High Court,
(now known as the
Gauteng Division
The Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law which has general jurisdiction over the South African province of Gauteng and the eastern part of North West province. The main seat of the division is at Pretoria, ...
). In 2007 she was also appointed to the
Labour Appeal Court, and in 2009 she was appointed to the Constitutional Court by President
Jacob Zuma
Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (; born 12 April 1942) is a South African politician who served as the fourth president of South Africa from 2009 to 2018. He is also referred to by his initials JZ and clan name Msholozi, and was a former anti-aparth ...
.
In 2021 she was appointed as the acting chief justice of the apex court.
References
Judges of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
South African barristers
1957 births
Living people
South African women in politics
Constitutional court women judges
South African women judges
South African women lawyers
20th-century South African lawyers
21st-century South African judges
University of Zululand alumni
Harvard Law School alumni
20th-century women lawyers
21st-century women judges
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