February 2012.indd - World Memon Organization Pakistan Chapter

PROFILEJustice IsmailMuhammadSouth Africa’s First non-white Chief JusticeA.Hameed Tayab Suriya42Justice Ismail Muhammad was afirst non-white South African lawyerwho served as the Chief Justice ofSouth Africa and the Supreme Court ofNamibia, and co-authored the constitutionof Namibia.Ismail Muhammad was born in LaudiumPretoria in 1931; his parents were Indianmemon merchants. Who migrated fromRanavav and were traders in the then Transvaal.He graduated from Pretoria IndianBoys’ High School in 1950. He received hisBA from University of the Witwatersrand in1953 and the following year received his BAhonors with distinction in political science.He finished his Bachelor of Laws in 1957.Ismail Muhammad was refused admissionto the Pretoria bar association, as itwas reserved for white lawyers, but was ableto join the bar in Johannesburg. However,because of the Group Areas Act, he wasbanned from getting an office of his own,and was forced to practice out of his colleagues’offices while they were away. In the1960s he served as a lawyer in Botswana.Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe In1974 he became the first non-white in SouthAfrican history to take silk. In 1979 he wasappointed to the appeal court of Swazilandand in 1982 was made an Appeal Judgein Lesotho, where he would later becomepresident of the Appeals court. He wasmade an English Barrister in 1984. In 1991he became the chair of the Convention for aDemocratic South Africa and the country’sfirst non-white judge of the Supreme Courtof South Africa. He was later appointed tothe Appeal Court. He was made a judge ofthe Constitutional Court in 1995. South AfricanPresident Nelson Mandela appointedIsmail Mahomed as chief justice of thatcountry’s highest court in 1996.The first Chief Justice to be appointed inpost-apartheid South Africa was Ismail Muhammad,a leading South African jurist ofIndian descent, who was selected to succeedCorbett in 1997 and eventually took officein 1998. Mahomed held the position untilhis death in 2000.Under South Africa’s Interim Constitutionof 1993 and later the Final Constitution,the importance of the position ofChief Justice as the position of final judicialauthority was temporarily relegated beneaththat of the President of the newly createdConstitutional Court. Ismail Muhammadhad been tipped widely for the job of ConstitutionalCourt.Mr. Justice Muhmmad has publishedmany articles in Law Journals and lecturedon Human Rights Jurisprudence at severalInstitutions and Universities abroad. Hewas made an Honorary Professor of Lawat Wits University in 1990 and receivedHonorary Doctorates in Law from the Universitiesof Delhi and Natal. He presentedwith an honorary degree of Doctor of Lawsby the University of Pennsylvania on May18, 1992.Ismail Muhammad died of pancreaticcancer in Johannesburg at Linksfield Clinicon 17 June 2000, shortly after leaving thebench. He was 68 years old and hailed fromthe Ranawav Memon Community,Every year The Ismail Muhammed Prizefor Law Reform is a joint venture betweenthe South African Law Reform Commissionand Juta & Co. The competition wasestablished in honour of the late Chief Justiceand former Chairperson of the SouthAfrican Law Reform Commission. Theaim of this competition, which is an annualevent at the SALRC, is to encourage criticallegal writing by students, while generatingnew innovative ideas for the reform of thelaw. The initiative also seeks to encouragelegal scholarship and public dialogue on thelink between law reform, human rights andthe rule of law.MEMON ALAM FEBRUARY 2012