Ismail Mahomed

Justice Ismail Mahomed (5 July 1931 - 17 June 2000) was a South African lawyer who served as the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and the Supreme Court of Namibia, and co-authored the constitution of Namibia.

Early life

Mahomed was born in Pretoria, his parents were Indian merchants. He graduated from Pretoria Indian Boys' High Schoolcite web
title = Justice Ismail Mahomed
url = http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:8DGPpYLT3B0J:concourt.law.wits.ac.za/judges/jdmahom.html+Ismail+Mahomed&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=13&gl=ca&client=firefox-a
accessdate = 2008-08-31 ] in 1950. He received his BA from University of the Witwatersrand in 1953 and the following year received his BA honours with distinction in political science. He finished his Bachelor of Laws in 1957.

Career

Mahomed was refused admission to the Pretoria bar association, as it was reserved for white lawyers, but was able to join the bar in Johannesburg.cite web
title = Justice Ismail Mahomed
url =http://www.concourt.gov.za/text/judges/former/justiceismailmahomed/1.html
accessdate = 2008-08-31 ] However, because of the Group Areas Act, he was banned from getting an office of his own, and was forced to practice out of his colleagues' offices while they were away.cite news
last = CAUVIN
first = HENRI E
title = Ismail Mahomed, 68; Led Post-Apartheid Court
publisher = The New York Times
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506E3D61431F93AA25755C0A9669C8B63
accessdate = 2008-08-31 ] In the 1960s he served as a lawyer in Botswana. Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. In 1974 he became the first non-white in South African history to take silk. In 1979 he was appointed to the appeal court of Swaziland and in 1982 was made a Appeal Judge in Lesotho, were he would later become president of the Appeals court. He was made an English Barrister in 1984. In 1991 he became the chair of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa and the country's first non-white judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa. He was later appointed to the Appeal Court. He was made a judge of the Constitutional Court in 1995. In 1996 made the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court by President Nelson Mandela.cite news
title = Mandela appoints Ismail Mahomed Chief Justice
publisher = bnet
url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n3_v91/ai_18936352
accessdate = 2008-08-31 ]

Death

Mahomed died of pancreatic cancer in Johannesburg on 17 June 2000, shortly after leaving the bench.

References