Honouring 150 years of legal excellence
Grahamstown High Court fêted for contribution to SA’s juidicial system
THE Eastern Cape division of the high court was yesterday hailed by the legal community for having contributed much to the transformation of the country’s legal system.
Celebrating the Grahamstown court’s 150-year jubilee, members of the legal, educational, religious and civic communities, spoke highly of its place in the history of the province.
Eastern Cape Judge President Themba Sangoni told a special sitting of the court in Grahamstown that the superior court for the Eastern districts of the then Cape Colony had first been established by the Cape Parliament in 1864 with its seat in Grahamstown.
The court has been at its current premises in High Street since its inception.
Originally a commercial hall for meetings of merchants and civic organisations, author George Randell, records in his book, Bench and Bar of the Eastern Cape , that it had had initially been “far from suitable for the purpose of a court”. The law library needed an absurdly long ladder to reach its top bookshelves, the advocates had uncomfortable seats and the public gallery could only be reached by a winding wooden staircase. This staircase, one judge had pointed out, presented the court below with a “remarkable view of one’s posterior”.
The court had undergone several renovations and expansions over the years, all of which took place around the original building.
Sangoni said it had originally enjoyed jurisdiction over the entire Eastern Cape but later lost jurisdiction over the Transkei and Ciskei regions.
Superior courts were created for these regions in Mthatha and Bhisho in anticipation of so-called independence of these homelands in 1976 and 1981 respectively.
The three separate superior courts in the Eastern Cape, were finally rationalised and unified with the promulgation of the Superior Courts Act in 2013.
Once again, Grahamstown was declared the main seat of the Eastern Cape division with Port Elizabeth, Bhisho and Mthatha becoming local seats.
Sangoni said the 150year-old institution had experienced its historic ups and downs, but since the dawn of democracy in 1994, had been hailed by many legal analysts as having made a significant contribution to the transformation of the legal system, particularly in the field of public law.
Speaking on behalf of the bar, Advocate Izak Smuts, SC, said there was much to celebrate.
While he said the court’s record was not without blemish, both enfranchised and disenfranchised citizens had successfully turned to it for protection, even during the worst periods of conflict.
He cited several examples, including that of antiapartheid activist Gugile Nkwinti whose detention during the 1985 state of emergency was declared illegal by the Grahamstown High Court. It ordered the police to release him. Nkwinti is now a cabinet minister.
“The insistence by judges of this court that their single duty was to ensure that justice was available to those who sought it, and the manifestation of the independence of the judiciary symbolised by that approach is in my view, a proper reason to celebrate,” said Smuts.
Speaking on behalf of the attorneys, Justin Powers said that despite their small numbers, the judges of the Eastern Cape had rightly enjoyed a reputation for judicial excellence and, where necessary, judicial activism.
“This court has been a leader in ensuring effective and meaningful access by all to the courts.”
Countless thousands of people, rich and poor, had their disputes resolved, not by bloodshed or violence, but under the high court’s eaves in a setting designed to promote tranquillity, justice and fairness, said Powers.
Speaking on behalf of the office of the Eastern Cape director of public prosecutions, senior state Advocate Nickie Turner said the judicial excellence of the Eastern Cape division had resulted in a “veritable diaspora of judges from this division to higher office in the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court. It is a feather in the cap of this division that our judges are so regularly ‘pinched’.”
She said the various officers of the court had for 150 years “endeavoured to dispense justice with enlightenment, integrity, respect and legal skill”.
The special sitting in the court was followed by a celebratory march to the nearby Cathedral of St Michael and St George. Participants were all in full religious, academic, and judicial regalia. The colourful march was led by Grahamstown Anglican Bishop Ebenezer Ntlali, Sangoni, Rhodes University Vice Chancellor Sizwe Mabizela and several judges. The legal community and dozens of school children followed.