Johann Christiaan Kriegler (born 29 November 1932) is a retired justice of the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Early life

Born in Pretoria, he matriculated at King Edward VII School in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

in 1949. He then attended the

South African Military Academy The South African Military Academy is based on similar principles to that of the military academy system of the United States (United States Military Academy United States Naval Academy United States Air Force Academy). The academy is a military ...

for two years. He studied law at the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was ...

and the

University of South Africa The University of South Africa (UNISA), known colloquially as Unisa, is the largest university system in South Africa by enrollment. It attracts a third of all higher education students in South Africa. Through various colleges and affiliates, U ...

Career

After obtaining his LLB degree in 1958, he was called to the Johannesburg Bar in 1959. Kriegler served three times as Chairman and Secretary of the Johannesburg Bar Council, and as Secretary of the General Council of the Bar of South Africa. He drafted the constitution of the Christian Institute of Southern Africa, became National President of Verligte Aksie and founding Chairman of Lawyers for Human Rights. For some years he served on the Transvaal Board of the Urban Foundation and from 1978 to 1988 was a founding trustee of the

Legal Resources Centre The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) is a human rights organisation based in South Africa with offices in Johannesburg (including a Constitutional Litigation Unit), Cape Town, Durban and Grahamstown. It was founded in 1979 by a group of prominent South ...

. Between 1976 and 1983, Kriegler served intermittently as an acting judge and in 1984 was appointed to the Transvaal Provincial Division of the Supreme Court. Between 1990 and 1993 he acted in the Appellate Division, then the highest court in the country, and was permanently appointed to its bench in 1993. The following year he was appointed a founding justice of the newly formed Constitutional Court of South Africa and completed his term of office in 2002. In December 1993 he was appointed Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission whose task it was to deliver South Africa's first elections based on universal adult suffrage. In 1999 after months of fighting over the way South Africa's second post-apartheid election should be run, Kriegler resigned. He said he found "the load" of being both chairman of the commission and a justice of the Constitutional Court "increasingly heavy." He had repeatedly complained of a lack of financing for his agency and criticized the Government's decision to require voters to get new identity documents before registering. The new requirements were opposed by the two major white political parties and the

Inkatha Freedom Party The Inkatha Freedom Party ( zu, IQembu leNkatha yeNkululeko, IFP) is a right-wing political party in South Africa. The party has been led by Velenkosini Hlabisa since the party's 2019 National General Conference. Mangosuthu Buthelezi founded t ...

Other positions and awards

Kriegler is currently a trustee of a number of charitable trusts. In 2008, Kriegler led a commission recommending reforms to the

electoral An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operat ...

process in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

following the

crisis A crisis ( : crises; : critical) is either any event or period that will (or might) lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affair ...

after the

2007 presidential election This electoral calendar 2007 lists the national/federal direct elections held in 2007 in the de jure and de facto sovereign states and their dependent territories. Referendums are included, although they are not elections. By-elections are not i ...

Personal life

Kriegler and his wife have nine children and sixteen grandchildren between them and live in Johannesburg.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kriegler, Johann 1932 births Living people 20th-century South African judges Academic staff of the University of Pretoria University of Pretoria alumni Alumni of King Edward VII School (Johannesburg) Judges of the Constitutional Court of South Africa 21st-century South African judges