Glenn Goosen | |
---|---|
Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal | |
Assumed office 1 December 2022 | |
Appointed by | Cyril Ramaphosa |
Judge of the High Court | |
In office 1 January 2012 –30 November 2022 | |
Appointed by | Jacob Zuma |
Division | Eastern Cape |
Personal details | |
Born | Glenn Graham Goosen 12 April 1962 Port Elizabeth,South Africa |
Alma mater | University of Cape Town |
Glenn Graham Goosen (born 12 April 1962) is a South African judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal. He was formerly a judge of the Eastern Cape High Court from January 2012 until December 2022,when he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Before joining the bench,Goosen practised as an advocate in Port Elizabeth,gaining silk status in 2004. He was also a prominent student activist in the anti-apartheid movement and served briefly as director of investigations for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Goosen was born on 12 April 1962 in Port Elizabeth (later renamed Gqeberha) in the Eastern Cape. [1] He matriculated at St Patrick's Marist Brothers College in Port Elizabeth and went on to the University of Cape Town (UCT),where he completed a BA in 1984 and an LLB in 1988. [1] [2] He was a researcher at UCT's Centre for African Studies in 1987. [2]
While at UCT,he became involved in the student anti-apartheid movement,gaining election as the president of the UCT student representative council in 1985 and serving on the national executive of the National Union of South African Students. He also joined the End Conscription Campaign in 1986. [2]
In 1989,Goosen served his articles of clerkship at Brereton &Co,a firm focused on human rights law and public interest law. [1] The head of the firm,Vanessa Brereton,later confessed to having spied on anti-apartheid activists,including Goosen,on behalf of the South African Police. [3] [4] At the time,Goosen remained active in the anti-apartheid movement,sitting on the executive of the United Democratic Front from 1989 and becoming active in the African National Congress when it was unbanned by the apartheid government in 1990. [2]
Goosen was admitted as an advocate in 1990 and he practised at the Port Elizabeth Bar for the next two decades. [1] During that time,he took a brief hiatus from practice between 1996 and 1997 while he served as national director of the investigations unit of the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). [1] He had originally interviewed,unsuccessfully,for the more junior post of national legal officer for the TRC,which was ultimately filled by Hanif Vally. [5] He resigned from the TRC in 1997 amid rumours of "personal differences" between him and TRC commissioner Dumisa Ntsebeza. [2]
Upon returning to the bar in 1998,Goosen became active in the governance and mentorship programmes of the Port Elizabeth Bar,Eastern Cape Bar,and General Council of the Bar. [1] [2] He was awarded silk status in 2004, [2] and he served as an acting judge on several occasions between 2005 and 2011,sitting in the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa. [1] In April 2010,he was one of nine candidates shortlisted and interviewed for permanent appointment to one of five vacancies in the Eastern Cape High Court. However,during Goosen's interview,Dumisa Ntsebeza –who by then was a member of the Judicial Service Commission –repeatedly pointed to the existing preponderance of white males in the court,and the Judicial Service Commission did not recommend Goosen for appointment. [6]
In October 2011,the Judicial Service Commission interviewed Goosen for a new vacancy in the Eastern Cape High Court,and on that occasion it recommended him for appointment. [7] President Jacob Zuma confirmed his appointment with effect from 1 January 2012. [8] [9] In the High Court,his best-known judgement was Madzodzo v Minister of Basic Education,sometimes known as "the furniture case",which was handed down in February 2014 and which concerned the content of the right to basic education as enshrined in Section 29(1) of the Constitution. [10] [11] Goosen ruled that the Department of Basic Education had violated the right to basic education by failing to provide furniture to rural schools in the former Transkei. He agreed with the Legal Resources Centre that the right to education required the provision of "a range of educational resources",including school furniture,and that the government's budgetary constraints did not nullify learners' entitlement to effective relief. [12] [13]
Goosen later served lengthy stints as an acting judge in the Supreme Court of Appeal,first for a year between June 2020 and May 2021 and then for one term between June and September 2022. [1] In addition to dissenting judgements,he wrote the court's majority judgements in Martrade Shipping v United Enterprises,a shipping law matter, [2] and in National Union of Metalworkers v Dunlop,in which the court ruled in favour of the National Union of Metalworkers in finding that the Labour Relations Act protected unions from civil liability for damages incurred in the course of industrial action. [14]
In October 2022,Goosen was one of 11 candidates interviewed by the Judicial Service Commission for possible appointment to one of five permanent vacancies at the Supreme Court of Appeal. Although the National Association of Democratic Lawyers suggested that his elevation would result in an "over-representation of white men" on the Supreme Court, [15] the Eastern Cape branch of Lawyers for Transformation pointed to his "impeccable credentials" in the anti-apartheid movement, [2] as did former Supreme Court President Lex Mpati,who supported his nomination. [16] In addition,both Deputy Chief Justice Mandisa Maya and Gauteng Judge President Dunstan Mlambo praised Goosen for having assisted the judiciary in transitioning to virtual hearings, [15] of which Goosen had been an early adopter during the COVID-19 pandemic. [2]
During his interview,when asked about his Madzodzo judgement,Goosen expressed his belief that transformative justice was a constitutional imperative and must inform all judicial interpretation,including interpretation of the Bill of Rights. [17] The Judicial Service Commission selected him as one of five candidates suitable for appointment, [16] [18] and he joined the bench on 1 December 2022. [1] [19]
Goosen has several academic publications and since 2008 has been an adjunct professor in public law at the Nelson Mandela University. [1] [2]
He is married to Therese Boulle and has three children. [1]
Yahya John Mandlakayise Hlophe is the former Judge President of the Western Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa. He is the first Judge President to have ever been removed from office through impeachment proceedings in post-1994 democratic South Africa.
Thembile Lewis Skweyiya was a South African lawyer and judge who served on the Constitutional Court of South Africa between February 2004 and May 2014. He rose to prominence as a civil rights lawyer during apartheid and he served three years in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court before his elevation to the Constitutional Court.
Johan Coenraad Froneman is a South African retired judge who was a justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from October 2009 to May 2020. He joined the judiciary as a judge of the Eastern Cape Division in 1994 and was elevated to the apex court by President Jacob Zuma. He was also the inaugural Deputy Judge President of the Labour Court of South Africa between 1996 and 1999.
Lex Mpati is a South African retired judge who was the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa from August 2008 to May 2016. He was appointed to the bench in February 1997 as a judge of the Eastern Cape Division and he joined the Supreme Court as a puisne judge in December 2000. Before his elevation to the presidency,he was the Supreme Court's first Deputy President from 2003 to 2008. He was also an acting judge in the Constitutional Court in 2007.
Zukisa Laura Lumka Tshiqi is a South African judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. She formerly served in the Supreme Court of Appeal from December 2009 until October 2019,when President Cyril Ramaphosa elevated her to the Constitutional Court. She was a practising attorney until she was first appointed to the bench in the Gauteng High Court in 2005.
Nonkosi Zoliswa Mhlantla is a South African judge of the Constitutional Court. Elevated to that court in December 2015,she was formerly a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal between December 2008 and November 2015. She entered legal practice as an attorney in her hometown,Port Elizabeth,and joined the bench in June 2002,becoming the first woman ever to be appointed to the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa.
Steven Arnold Majiedt is a South African judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He joined the Constitutional Court in October 2019 as an appointee of President Cyril Ramaphosa. Formerly a practicing advocate,he served in the Supreme Court of Appeal from 2010 to 2019 and in the Northern Cape High Court from 2000 to 2010.
Leona Valerie Theron is a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Before her elevation in July 2017,she served in the Supreme Court of Appeal between December 2010 and June 2017. She is the first Coloured judge to serve in the Constitutional Court.
Dumisa Buhle Ntsebeza is a South African lawyer,public speaker,author and political activist born in Transkei,now the Umtata,Eastern Cape.
Mandisa Muriel Lindelwa Maya is the Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa. She was formerly the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal from 2017 to 2022. She joined the bench in May 2000 as a judge of the Transkei Division of the High Court of South Africa and was elevated to the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2006.
Xola Mlungisi Petse is a South African judge who has been the Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Appeal since 2019. A former attorney,he joined the Supreme Court as a puisne judge in June 2012. Before that,he was a judge of the Eastern Cape High Court from July 2005 to May 2012.
Rammaka Steven Mathopo is a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Before his elevation to that court in January 2022,he served in the Supreme Court of Appeal between June 2015 and December 2021. He was formerly a judge of the Gauteng High Court from January 2006 to May 2015,and he practised as an attorney for 17 years before then.
Owen Lloyd Rogers is a South African judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Before his appointment to that court in August 2022,he served in the Western Cape Division of the High Court for nine years,having joined the bench in February 2013. Formerly an advocate and senior counsel at the Cape Bar,he was also a judge of the Competition Appeal Court between 2016 and 2022.
Wendy Hughes,formerly known as Wendy Hughes-Madondo,is a South African judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal. Formerly an attorney in private practice,she was a judge of the Gauteng High Court from July 2013 until July 2021,when she was appointed to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Caroline Elizabeth Heaton Nicholls is a South African judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal. Formerly a human rights lawyer,she was a judge of the Johannesburg High Court from September 2009 until June 2019,when she was appointed to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Dumisani Hamilton Zondi is a South African judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal. He was appointed as the chairperson of the Electoral Court in 2022. Before his elevation to the Supreme Court in June 2014,he served in the Western Cape High Court between 2007 and 2014,as well as in the Competition Appeal Court between 2011 and 2014. He entered legal practice as an attorney in 1986.
Ashton Schippers is a South African judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal. Before his elevation to that court in June 2018,he served in the Western Cape High Court from February 2013 to May 2018. He was formerly an advocate in Cape Town,where he took silk in 2004 and where he was chairperson of the bar council between 2004 and 2006.
Mahendra Ramasamy Chetty is a South African judge of the High Court of South Africa. He was appointed to the KwaZulu-Natal Division in June 2014. Before that,Chetty was an attorney for the Legal Resources Centre,where he worked between 1990 and 2014;he was the director of the centre's Durban office from 1999 onwards. He was admitted as an attorney in 1988.
Bantubonke Regent Tokota is a South African judge of the High Court of South Africa. He was appointed to the Eastern Cape Division in October 2017 after 20 years as a practising advocate in Pretoria. He was Senior Counsel from 2006 onwards and also served on the Marikana Commission of Inquiry between 2012 and 2014.
Clive Michael Plasket is a South African jurist and retired judge who served in the Supreme Court of Appeal from 2019 to 2022. He was formerly a judge of the Eastern Cape High Court from 2003 to 2019. Before that,he was a practising attorney and a legal academic at Rhodes University,renowned especially as an expert on administrative law.