Moseneke started his professional career as an attorney's articled clerk at Klagbruns Inc in Pretoria in 1973.[1] He was admitted as an attorney in 1976 and practised for five years at Maluleke,Seriti and Moseneke,mainly before the Company Court in liquidation matters and in criminal trials. In 1983 he was called to the Pretoria Bar. His application had sparked a dispute within the Bar which culminated in its abolishing its "whites-only" membership rule.[2] Moseneke practised as an advocate in Johannesburg and Pretoria and was noted for his Company Law,Bankruptcy and Indirect Tax practice and was briefed extensively by black and Asian businessmen. He was awarded senior counsel status ten years later. Moseneke worked underground for the PAC during the 1980s and became its Deputy President when it was unbanned in 1990.[2] Moseneke also served on the technical committee that drafted the interim constitution of 1993.[1] In 1994 he was appointed Deputy Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission,which conducted the first democratic elections in South Africa.
Judicial career
In September 1994,while practising as a silk,Moseneke accepted an acting appointment to the Transvaal Provincial Division.[1] Between 1995 and 2001,however,Moseneke left the Bar to pursue a full-time corporate career,most famously as the chair of Telkom. In November 2001,Moseneke was appointed to the High Court in Pretoria,his hometown,by then President Thabo Mbeki. A year later,he was made a judge in the Constitutional Court and,in June 2005,became Deputy Chief Justice. On 4 November 2013,Moseneke was appointed Acting Chief Justice during the long-term leave of Mogoeng Mogoeng.[5]
Moseneke was regarded as one of the strongest judges on South Africa's Constitutional Court. For example,he was praised for his "towering legal mind" and "commitment to fairness and justice"[6] and described as "a most independent-minded and imaginative jurist".[7] Moseneke's judgments include:
National Treasury v Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance,[11] where the Court refused to grant an interim injunction to stop Gauteng's controversial e-tolls;
Moseneke made a significant contribution to South African property law. He penned the Constitutional Court's last three majority judgments on the Restitution of Land Rights Act[16] and decided a leading case on expropriation in 2014.[17] The following year,in Shoprite v MEC,Eastern Cape,which dealt comprehensively with the meaning of the constitutional right to property,Moseneke's judgment attracted the most concurrences.[18]
Most celebrated is Moseneke's judgment in Glenister v President,co-authored with Justice Edwin Cameron,which struck down amendments to the National Prosecuting Act and South African Police Service Act on the basis that they failed to create an "adequately independent" anti-corruption unit.[19] This was hailed as an "imaginative"[20] and "brilliant"[21] judgment by commentators and means South Africa must have an independent corruption-fighting agency notwithstanding the ruling ANC's controversial disbanding of the Scorpions.
Before his judicial appointment,Moseneke had succeeded,as a litigant,in having South Africa's racially discriminatory system of estate administration declared constitutionally invalid.[22]
Moseneke is also known for his independence. At public events,he has distanced himself from ANC interests,criticised the government's flouting of court orders,and decried the extensive powers afforded the President - in each case triggering an angry response from the ruling party.[6][23][24] Moseneke has twice been passed over for appointment as Chief Justice,despite being the most senior judge on the Court. On the second occasion,when Mogoeng was appointed,many prominent figures said Moseneke was the better candidate,and questioned the ANC's motives in snubbing him.[25][26][27][28] Mogoeng was one of the Constitutional Court's most junior members,having been appointed to it less than two years earlier,and having had a relatively short judicial career at one of the smallest High Court divisions prior to that.[29][30] His nomination ahead of Moseneke reminded many of the notorious supersession by L. C. Steyn,a National Party favourite,of Oliver Schreiner.[30][31] Finally,whereas Moseneke had been active in the struggle against apartheid,Mogoeng had been a prosecutor in a bantustan.[32][33]
Moseneke retired from the Constitutional Court in May 2016.[34]
↑Minister of Police and Others v Premier of the Western Cape and Others(2013) ZACC 33.
↑Minister of Finance and Another v Van Heerden(2004) ZACC 3.
↑South African Police Service v Solidarity obo Barnard(2014) ZACC 23.
↑Department of Land Affairs and Others v Goedgelegen Tropical Fruits (Pty) Ltd(2007) ZACC 12; Kwalindile Community v King Sabata Dalinyebo Municipality and Others; Zimbane Community v King Sabata Dalinyebo Municipality and Others(2013) ZACC 6; Florence v Government of the Republic of South Africa(2014) ZACC 22.
↑Arun Property Development (Pty) Ltd v City of Cape Town(2014) ZACC 37.
↑Shoprite Checkers (Pty) Limited v Member of the Executive Council for Economic Development, Environmental Affairs And Tourism, Eastern Cape and Others(2015) ZACC 23.
↑Glenister v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others(2011) ZACC 6
↑"Dikgang Moseneke, former deputy chief justice of the South African Constitutional Court, to receive 2020 Bolch Prize for the Rule of Law", Bolch Judicial Institute press release, 16 Jan 2020.
English Wikisource has original works by or about:
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
