RIP: Ramaphosa mourns passing of Justice Yvonne Mokgoro

President Cyril Ramaphosa has offered his condolences to the family and loved ones of retired Constitutional Court Justice Yvonne Mokgoro.

Mokgoro passed away on Thursday, 9 May, following an extended illness after a car accident.

RAMAPHOSA MOURNS YVONNE MOKGORO 

On behalf of the government, President Ramaphosa offered his deep condolences to the late Justice’s husband, Professor Job Mokgoro, her immediate and extended family, and her many associates in the legal fraternity in South Africa and abroad.

Mokgoro was a judge of the Constitutional Court from its inception in 1994 until the end of her 15-year term in 2009. In addition, she was South Africa’s first black woman judge to sit on the Constitutional Court’s bench.

Throughout her legal career, she taught several courses, including Constitutional Law, Human Rights Law Jurisprudence, History of Law, Comparative Law, Criminal Law, Private Law, and Customary Law at several universities in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Netherlands.

Retired Justice Yvonne Mokgoro when she was bestowed the Order of Mendi for Baobab during the National Orders Awards ceremony in Pretoria in 2015. Image: Flickr/GCIS.

President Ramaphosa said Justice Mokgoro’s passing deprives the South African nation of a formidable intellect and impeccable jurist who served the country’s democracy at its very inception and through the years that followed.

“As we recall the inauguration of our founding President Nelson Mandela 30 years ago on this day, 10 May, we count his appointment of Justice Mokgoro to the Constitutional Court as one of the critical, transformative decisions he exercised in those early days of our liberation.”

As a black woman judge, President Ramaphosa said Mokgoro was a pioneering embodiment of and contributor to the transformation of the country and the legal system and new jurisprudence that enabled transformation.

“Justice Mokgoro distinguished herself as an academic, a justice of our apex court, Chairperson of the South African Law Commission, and as a strategic advisor to a diversity of boards in different sectors. Her insightful and principled counsel lives on in the thousands of legal careers she shaped in the course of her academic endeavours.

“She has left us under very tragic circumstances, and we, therefore, join the family in their sadness and their prayers that this beloved mother, patriot, leader, and citizen of the globe will rest in peace,” Ramaphosa said.