- Johann Kriegler
Johann Christiaan Kriegler (born 1932) is a former Constitutional Court and Appeal Court judge from
South Africa . [ [http://www.concourt.gov.za/text/judges/former/justicejohannkriegler/1.html Constitutional Court of South Africa profile] ]Born in Pretoria, he matriculated at King Edward Vll School in
Johannesburg in 1949. He then attended theSouth African Military Academy for two years. He studied law at theUniversity of Pretoria and theUniversity of South Africa . After obtaining his LLB degree in 1958, he was called to the Johannesburg Bar in 1959.He 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, 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.Between 1976 and 1983 Judge 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 and was permanently appointed to the bench there in 1993. 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.
On
10 March 1994 , presidentLucas Mangope took a hardline stance, rejecting Judge Johann Kriegler's plea for free political activity in the homeland, and firing the staff of theBophuthatswana Broadcasting Corporation, closing down two television stations and three radio stations.In 1999 after months of fighting over the way South Africa's second post-apartheid election should be run, Kriegler resigned. 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. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01E1D91339F934A15752C0A96F958260 Head of South Africa's Election Commission Resigns Suddenly] NYTimes ]
He is currently a Board Member of the University of South Africa Law Faculty, Board Member of the University of Pretoria Institute of Human Rights Studies, and a trustee of a number of charitable trusts.
He is married and has six children and twelve grandchildren.
References
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