Zak Yacoob

Yacoob was born on 3 March 1948 in Durban in the former Natal Province.^[1] His father was a Muslim cleric and he was classified as Indian under apartheid.^[2][3] At the age of 16 months, he became blind due to meningitis,^[4] and from 1956 to 1966, he attended the Arthur Blaxall School for the Blind in Durban.^[1]

Thereafter, he attended University College on Durban's Salisbury Island (later the University of Durban-Westville), where he completed a BA in English and private law in 1969 and an LLB in 1972.^[1] While a student, he became politically active in the anti-apartheid movement.^[1]

Yacoob served his pupillage in Durban and was admitted as an advocate of the Supreme Court of South Africa on 12 March 1973.^[1] He practised as an advocate for the next 25 years, taking silk in May 1991.^[1] Though his practice was generalist, he was best known for his criminal law and public law advocacy on behalf of political prisoners and others affected by apartheid legislation.^[1] His notable clients included the Durban Six, the Delmas Treason Triallists (whose defence counsel also included George Bizos and Ismail Mahomed),^[5][6] and Pravin Gordhan and other African National Congress (ANC) members in the Operation Vula trial.^[2][7][8]

During the same period, Yacoob himself was personally active in the anti-apartheid movement. In 1980, when the Durban Committee of Ten was established amid a wave of local protests and a stringent government response, he became the committee's chairperson.^[1][8] He was a member of the executive of the Durban Detainees' Support Committee from 1981 to 1985 and of the Durban Housing Action Committee from 1982 to 1985.^[1] In addition, he was a member of the executive of the Natal Indian Congress from 1981 to 1991,^[1] as well as a member of the United Democratic Front's Natal executive and of the ANC's underground structures.^[2][9]

In the 1990s, Yacoob was involved in the post-apartheid transition and drafting of the post-apartheid Constitution, initially as a member of the Technical Committee on Fundamental Rights at the Multi-Party Negotiating Forum. He served on the Independent Electoral Commission from December 1993 to June 1994, and after that he was a member of the Constitutional Assembly's panel of independent experts.^[1][8]

In 1994, Yacoob applied unsuccessfully for a seat on the inaugural Constitutional Court of South Africa.^[2] Four years later, in February 1998,^[1] President Nelson Mandela appointed him to the court after the University of Natal nominated him for a new vacancy.^[2] He served a full 15-year term on the bench, including a stint as acting Deputy Chief Justice in 2012 while Dikgang Moseneke was on leave.^[10][11] He was a notoriously intimidating figure in the court's hearings, partly because of his impressive power of recall.^[8] His handwriting inspired the Constitutional Court's official font.^[9]

Despite his role in drafting the Constitution, Yacoob was opposed to an originalist model of judicial interpretation, arguing instead that the Constitution "takes a life unto itself" and is interpreted "in the context and in the time we are in".^[8] His most important contribution to the court's jurisprudence was his majority judgement in Government v Grootboom, a landmark 2000 case which established the justiciability of socioeconomic rights.^[9] He also wrote the court's majority judgement in Democratic Alliance v President, a politically sensitive 2012 matter in which the court overturned the appointment of Menzi Simelane as National Director of Public Prosecutions.^[12]

After 15 years on the bench, Yacoob retired at the end of January 2013.^[8] He was succeeded by Mbuyiseli Madlanga later that year.^[13]

In his retirement, Yacoob continued his public service in various capacities. In 2014, he led an independent "fact-finding" inquiry into allegations of serious misconduct at the National Prosecuting Authority, publishing damning findings against prosecutors Nomgcobo Jiba and Lawrence Mrwebi.^[14][15] The following year, he was the head of a Hague-based panel of international judges who conducted the International People's Tribunal on the 1965 mass killings in Indonesia,^[16] and in 2018, he chaired South Africa's People Tribunal on Economic Crimes, which was mandated to probe apartheid-era economic crimes as well as the post-apartheid Arms Deal and state capture.^[17] He also continued his disability activism – having formerly served as the chairperson of the South African National Council for the Blind,^[1] he remained active in the leadership of the KwaZulu-Natal Blind and Deaf Society – and his activism on socioeconomic rights.^[9][18]

Meanwhile, during the presidency of Jacob Zuma, Yacoob publicly clashed with the ANC leadership.^[19] In April 2016, following the Constitutional Court's judgement on the Nkandla saga in Economic Freedom Fighters v Speaker, Yacoob was among the anti-apartheid stalwarts who called publicly for Zuma to resign; he said that Zuma had "acted miserably, dishonestly and horribly".^[20]

In 1970, he married Anu Yacoob, with whom he had two children.^[1][9] Their daughter, Seena Yacoob, is an advocate and High Court judge,^[21] and their son is a scientist at the Large Hadron Collider.^[2]

• List of Constitutional Court opinions of Zak Yacoob

• Justice Zac Yacoob at South African History Online
• Interview with the Judicial Service Commission (1997)