Zak Yacoob | |
|---|---|
| Justice of the Constitutional Court | |
| In office 1 February 1998 – 31 January 2013 | |
| Appointed by | Nelson Mandela |
| Succeeded by | Mbuyiseli Madlanga |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Zakeria Mohammed Yacoob (1948-03-03)3 March 1948 (age 77) Durban,Natal Province Union of South Africa |
| Political party | African National Congress |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2, including Seena Yacoob |
| Alma mater | University of Durban-Westville |
Zakeria Mohammed "Zak" Yacoob (born 3 March 1948) is a retired South Africanjudge who served in theConstitutional Court of South Africa from February 1998 to January 2013. He was appointed to the bench byNelson Mandela and retired after serving the maximum 15-year term. Before he joined the bench, he was a practisingadvocate and ananti-apartheid activist.
Yacoob was born inDurban, where he was admitted as an advocate in 1973 and asSenior Counsel in 1991. He rose to prominence representing anti-apartheid activists inpublic law matters and criminalpolitical trials. At the same time, he was himself active in theNatal Indian Congress,United Democratic Front, and other anti-apartheid organisations. In the 1990s, he was a technical adviser in thepost-apartheid constitutional negotiations and a member of the inauguralIndependent Electoral Commission before he was appointed to the Constitutional Court.
He is well known for drafting the Constitutional Court's judgement inGrootboom, a landmarksocioeconomic rights matter. He is also a prominentdisability rights activist, having beenblind since infancy.
Yacoob was born on 3 March 1948 inDurban in the formerNatal Province.[1] His father was aMuslim cleric and he was classified asIndian underapartheid.[2][3] At the age of 16 months, he became blind due tomeningitis,[4] and from 1956 to 1966, he attended the Arthur Blaxall School for the Blind in Durban.[1]
Thereafter, he attended University College on Durban'sSalisbury Island (later theUniversity of Durban-Westville), where he completed a BA in English andprivate law in 1969 and an LLB in 1972.[1] While a student, he became politically active in the anti-apartheid movement.[1]
Yacoob served hispupillage in Durban and was admitted as anadvocate of theSupreme Court of South Africa on 12 March 1973.[1] He practised as an advocate for the next 25 years,taking silk in May 1991.[1] Though his practice was generalist, he was best known for hiscriminal law andpublic law advocacy on behalf ofpolitical prisoners and others affected byapartheid legislation.[1] His notable clients included theDurban Six, theDelmas Treason Triallists (whose defence counsel also includedGeorge Bizos andIsmail Mahomed),[5][6] andPravin Gordhan and otherAfrican National Congress (ANC) members in theOperation Vula trial.[2][7][8]
During the same period, Yacoob himself was personally active in the anti-apartheid movement. In 1980, when the Durban Committee of Ten was established amid a wave of local protests and a stringent government response, he became the committee's chairperson.[1][8] He was a member of the executive of the Durban Detainees' Support Committee from 1981 to 1985 and of the Durban Housing Action Committee from 1982 to 1985.[1] In addition, he was a member of the executive of theNatal Indian Congress from 1981 to 1991,[1] as well as a member of theUnited Democratic Front's Natal executive and of the ANC's underground structures.[2][9]
In the 1990s, Yacoob was involved in thepost-apartheid transition and drafting of thepost-apartheid Constitution, initially as a member of the Technical Committee on Fundamental Rights at theMulti-Party Negotiating Forum. He served on theIndependent Electoral Commission from December 1993 to June 1994, and after that he was a member of theConstitutional Assembly's panel of independent experts.[1][8]
In 1994, Yacoob applied unsuccessfully for a seat on the inauguralConstitutional Court of South Africa.[2] Four years later, in February 1998,[1] PresidentNelson Mandela appointed him to the court after theUniversity of Natal nominated him for a new vacancy.[2] He served a full 15-year term on the bench, including a stint as actingDeputy Chief Justice in 2012 whileDikgang Moseneke was on leave.[10][11] He was a notoriously intimidating figure in the court's hearings, partly because of his impressive power of recall.[8] His handwriting inspired the Constitutional Court's official font.[9]
Despite his role in drafting the Constitution, Yacoob was opposed to anoriginalist model of judicial interpretation, arguing instead that the Constitution "takes a life unto itself" and is interpreted "in the context and in the time we are in".[8] His most important contribution to the court's jurisprudence was his majority judgement inGovernment v Grootboom, a landmark 2000 case which established the justiciability ofsocioeconomic rights.[9] He also wrote the court's majority judgement inDemocratic Alliance v President, a politically sensitive 2012 matter in which the court overturned the appointment ofMenzi Simelane asNational Director of Public Prosecutions.[12]
After 15 years on the bench, Yacoob retired at the end of January 2013.[8] He was succeeded byMbuyiseli Madlanga later that year.[13]
In his retirement, Yacoob continued his public service in various capacities. In 2014, he led an independent "fact-finding" inquiry into allegations of serious misconduct at theNational Prosecuting Authority, publishing damning findings against prosecutors Nomgcobo Jiba and Lawrence Mrwebi.[14][15] The following year, he was the head of aHague-based panel of international judges who conducted theInternational People's Tribunal on the1965 mass killings in Indonesia,[16] and in 2018, he chaired South Africa's People Tribunal on Economic Crimes, which was mandated to probeapartheid-era economic crimes as well as the post-apartheidArms Deal andstate capture.[17] He also continued hisdisability activism – having formerly served as the chairperson of the South African National Council for the Blind,[1] he remained active in the leadership of the KwaZulu-Natal Blind and Deaf Society – and his activism on socioeconomic rights.[9][18]
Meanwhile, duringthe presidency ofJacob Zuma, Yacoob publicly clashed with the ANC leadership.[19] In April 2016, following the Constitutional Court's judgement on theNkandla saga inEconomic Freedom Fighters v Speaker, Yacoob was among the anti-apartheid stalwarts who called publicly for Zuma to resign; he said that Zuma had "acted miserably, dishonestly and horribly".[20]
In 1970, he married Anu Yacoob, with whom he had two children.[1][9] Their daughter, Seena Yacoob, is an advocate andHigh Court judge,[21] and their son is a scientist at theLarge Hadron Collider.[2]
