Legal giant, lawyers’ mentor and people’s lawyer
Struggle chapter closes for SA’s legal eagle
A great cook, one of the very few people who could meet Nelson Mandela any time he wanted and a humble human being. This is how human rights lawyer George Bizos has been remembered.
ANC deputy secretarygeneral Jessie Duarte said she spent a lot of time with Bizos during the Codesa negotiations and was touched by his warm personality.
“Uncle George and Tata Madiba had a very special relationship. He was one of the people who could just walk in any time where Madiba was. Whether there was a meeting or not. He could meet Madiba, chat with him and other people would have to leave the room. They had that kind of brotherly relation.
“He was great cook. I went to his home once, he cooked a sheep the Greek way. He made a hole on the ground and there’s coal in it and the sheep is cooked in there. Uncle George was constantly putting olive oil and leaves on it, telling stories while he was cooking,” Duarte said.
Bizos died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday. He was 92. At the height of apartheid, Bizos, a practicing attorney, dedicated his professional career to the fight for human rights. He also appeared at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), representing families of liberation heroes such as Steve Bantu Biko, Chris Hani and the Cradock Four.
During the celebration of late anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Kathrada’s 89th birthday in 2018, Bizos called on South Africans to espouse the values of nonracialism as enshrined in the constitution that Nelson Mandela and the likes of Kathrada had fought for.
In its official statement, the Thabo Mbeki Foundation described Bizos as someone who used his status as an advocate to support black colleagues who suffered discrimination in the bar and courts.
“He made his chambers available to the [likes of ]Justice Ismail Mahomed to be able to conduct his practice in the Johannesburg Bar where Mahomed was not allowed to have chambers.
“In earlier years, he had done the same to Advocate Duma Nokwe. To many black advocates, he was a mentor and guide.
“In later years, Bizos was among those who helped craft the new South African constitution and in the establishment of its institutions like the Constitutional Court and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission … Our democratic constitutional state is a commanding monument to this towering figure who gave so much over such a long time for us to honour our common humanity and shared values,” the foundation said.
ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile described Bizos as one of the finest legal minds in the country. “He was a giant when it comes to legal matters, having studied law in the 1940s. He represented many of our leaders. At the Rivonia Trial, he was part of that team that represented the high command of Umkhonto weSizwe.
“We’d like to honour him today. The attributes of comrade George was representing poor and vulnerable people.
“As the finest lawyer in the country, he could have been a judge for that matter but he preferred to represent poor people … that was his strength,” Mashatile said.
‘‘ He was among those who crafted new constitution