FAREWELL TO A GREAT LEGAL MIND
RETIRED deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke has been lauded for being one of South Africa’s greatest legal minds.
This came out during a farewell organised by the Pretoria Bar Council at the Pretoria Country Club on Saturday night.
“Justice Moseneke spent his entire life on and off the Bench, selflessly serving South Africans. He’s a judge whose judgments reflected a love for liberty and a passion for justice,” said Pretoria Bar member Soraya Hassim.
“Not every lawyer is a jurist, but in our midst today we have one of South Africa’s finest – a man who walked from Robben Island to the Constitutional Court, a freedom fighter, someone I am privileged to call a friend, and someone we at the Pretoria Bar feel privileged to be associated with,” she said.
Moseneke had sacrificed his youth for the betterment of South Africa. At the age of 15, he was convicted of taking part in antiapartheid activity and jailed on Robben Island for 10 years.
During his incarceration, he obtained a BA in English and political science, a B.Iuris and later an LLB through Unisa.
“Justice Moseneke sacrificed his youth so the youth of today can enjoy the fruits of freedom that was brought by that sacrifice,” Hassim said.
“He has spent his life in pursuit of justice. His defence of political activists in the days following the violence of June 16, 1976 into the more violent 1980s bears this out.”
She said Moseneke had successfully challenged the constitutionality of South Africa’s racially discriminatory laws.
“Justice Moseneke has not sought any accolades. He considered it a rare privilege to serve his country in the highest court. In a special meeting held at the Judicial Service Commission in 2013, he said he was prepared to serve on any other court lower than the Constitutional Court,” Hassim said.
The farewell event was attended by Moseneke’s family, as well as lawyers and judges affiliated to the Pretoria Bar.
In his address, Moseneke lamented the inequalities that still existed in South Africa.
“The social distance is increasing and not decreasing. Those who are smart are very smart and making lots of money.
“Those who are not smart are making less and less money. We actually have a problem.”
He said this could spark a revolution, and every citizen needed to take responsibility.
“This is where personal and collective agency comes in. For one to keep hope alive and stay in contact with everything we do, we need to ensure we keep those who hold power to account,” he said.
“In a variety of these, our citizens have shown that we are quite aware of the misgovernance and they are not lying down; they are not rolling over. It’s a good place; it can only become better. At most, it is a wobble in the long history of the people,” he added.
Moseneke served on the Constitutional Court Bench from November 2002 and was appointed deputy chief justice in June 2005.
His career started in 1976, when he worked as an attorney’s clerk at Klagsbrun Inc in Pretoria. Two years later, he was admitted and spent the next five years practising as an attorney and a partner at law firm Maluleke, Seriti and Moseneke.
After that, he practised as an advocate in both Joburg and Pretoria and, 10 years later, received senior counsel status.
Before Moseneke was admitted to the Constitutional Court, he took a six-year break from the legal world to pursue his corporate career.
This included being chairman of Telkom, Metropolitan Life and African Bank Investments.
Moseneke was part of the technical committee which drafted the interim constitution of 1993 but his contribution to democracy started long before his legal career.