Hector Norman Macdonald (3 November 1915 – 30 January 2011) was a

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

n judge who served as the country's Chief Justice from 1977 to 1980. Born in

Bulawayo Bulawayo (, ; Ndebele: ''Bulawayo'') is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council cl ...

, Macdonald became a High Court judge in 1958, continued to serve following the

Unilateral Declaration of Independence A unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) is a formal process leading to the establishment of a new state by a subnational entity which declares itself independent and sovereign without a formal agreement with the state which it is secedi ...

in 1965, and succeeded Sir Hugh Beadle as Chief Justice 12 years later. As the sitting Chief Justice at the time of the 1979

Lancaster House Agreement The Lancaster House Agreement, signed on 21 December 1979, declared a ceasefire, ending the Rhodesian Bush War; and directly led to Rhodesia achieving internationally recognised independence as Zimbabwe. It required the full resumption of d ...

, following which the country came under interim British control before receiving full independence as Zimbabwe, Macdonald administered the oath of office to

Robert Mugabe Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the ...

, the first Prime Minister of the reconstituted country, in April 1980. Macdonald retired and left the country a month later, moving to South Africa. He died in

Rondebosch Rondebosch is one of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. It is primarily a residential suburb, with shopping and business districts as well as the main campus of the University of Cape Town. History Four years after the first Dutch s ...

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 ...

, in 2011 at the age of 95.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Hector 1915 births 2011 deaths Chief justices of Rhodesia Chief justices of Zimbabwe People from Bulawayo Rhodesian judges 20th-century Zimbabwean judges Judges of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe Zimbabwean expatriates in South Africa