3 December 2002
President Thabo Mbeki has appointed Judge Dikgang Moseneke to the Constitutional Court with immediate effect. Making the new appointment on the weekend, Mbeki said he was confident that Moseneke would carry out his Constitutional Court functions with distinction.
Prior to his new appointment, Moseneke was a judge at the Pretoria High Court.
Three other judges were shortlisted for the post: Ben du Plessis, Kathy Satchwell and Lewis Skweyiya.
Moseneke replaces Judge Johann Kriegler, who was appointed to the Constitutional Court in 1994 and retired from the Court on 29 November 2002. Mbeki thanked Kriegler for the role he played in the founding of the Constitutional Court.
Kriegler chaired the Independent Electoral Commission during the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, and was instrumental in the compilation of the code of conduct for politicians during the election period.
Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson, Deputy Chief Justice Pius Langa and senior advocate George Bizos paid tribute to Kriegler on the eve of his retirement.
Chaskalson said Kriegler was “not one to hide his views” and had been a willing and strong fighter for human rights during the apartheid era.
“He has been a wonderful colleague, bringing to the work of the Court his years of experience, his acute mind, his writing skills which he shared with us all, and the meticulous attention not only to the judgments that he wrote but also the judgments of his colleagues.”
Source: BuaNews
