28 Facts About Mogoeng Mogoeng

Mogoeng Thomas Reetsang Mogoeng was born on 14 January 1961 and is a South African jurist who served as the Chief Justice of South Africa from 8 September 2011 until his retirement on 11 October 2021.

Mogoeng Mogoeng's father was a miner and his mother a domestic worker.

From 1985 he worked for the government of Bophuthatswana as a High Court prosecutor in Mahikeng; though working for a bantustan was stigmatised, Mogoeng was obliged to do so for five years to repay his government bursary.

Mogoeng Mogoeng obtained a Master of Laws by correspondence from the University of South Africa in 1989.

Mogoeng Mogoeng was the chair of Lawyers for Human Rights' Bophuthatswana chapter and a part-time lecturer at the University of Bophuthatswana.

In 1997, Mogoeng accepted an appointment to the North West High Court, though he had felt initially that he was too inexperienced to be made a judge.

Mogoeng Mogoeng became a judge of the Labour Appeal Court in 2000 and the Judge President of the North West High Court in 2002.

In October 2009, in President Jacob Zuma's first raft of judicial appointments, Mogoeng was elevated to the highest court in South Africa, its Constitutional Court.

Mogoeng Mogoeng was appointed simultaneously with Chris Jafta, Sisi Khampepe and Johan Froneman.

Less than two years later, in mid-2011, Mogoeng was nominated for appointment as Chief Justice.

Finally, whereas Moseneke had been active in the struggle against apartheid, COSATU said it was concerning that Mogoeng had been a prosecutor for a bantustan.

In State v Sebaeng, Mogoeng reduced the sentence of a child rapist on the basis that he had been non-violent and indeed "tender" in raping the victim.

Finally, in State v Mathebe, Mogoeng reduced the sentence, from two years' imprisonment to a fine of R4,000, of a man who had tied his girlfriend to his car and dragged her 50 meters along a dirt road.

Legal academic Pierre de Vos said Mogoeng was clearly the most conservative member of the Constitutional Court.

Moseneke, as the country's Acting Chief Justice pending a permanent appointment, chaired the Judicial Service Commission when it interviewed Mogoeng to determine his suitability.

Mogoeng Mogoeng has regularly championed judicial independence and deplored interference by the executive.

Mogoeng Mogoeng has publicly criticised Minister of Justice Michael Masutha for failing to ensure that the judiciary is autonomous and adequately funded.

In 2012, Mogoeng upheld a constitutional challenge by Mario Oriani-Ambrosini, of the minority Inkatha Freedom Party, to rules of Parliament that allowed an individual MP to introduce a Bill only if he or she first obtained the majority's approval.

Finally, in 2016, Mogoeng himself wrote the Court's judgment in Economic Freedom Fighters v Speaker of the National Assembly, which declared that President Zuma had violated the South African Constitution by failing to act on the Public Protector's Nkandla report.

Shortly before this Mogoeng had cautioned, in a contentious judgment that failed to win the support of a majority of his colleagues, that judges must respect the separation of powers and defer appropriately to the executive, and on this basis refused to accede to complaints that the government's controversial policy on new television broadcast technologies was unlawful.

On this occasion Mogoeng was strongly opposed to finding against Parliament; he described the majority judgment, which upheld the opposition parties' complaints, as "a textbook case of judicial overreach" and criticised his colleagues for overstepping the separation of powers.

The EFF was highly critical of Mogoeng's judgment, as well as his conduct at the court sitting when the judgment was delivered: Mogoeng had interrupted Jafta J, mid-delivery, to insist that he read out his judgment in full.

In DE v RH, in which the Court unanimously abrogated the action for adultery, Mogoeng wrote separately to emphasise that the law cannot be used to enforce marital ethics.

Mogoeng Mogoeng attributed the criticism over his nomination and appointment to his Christian faith.

Mogoeng Mogoeng quoted from the Bible, compared the three branches of government to the Holy Trinity and railed against social evils like "fornication".

Paul Hoffman SC sought to have Mogoeng impeached on the basis that he had brought the judiciary into disrepute, but this complaint was itself widely criticised as "ill-considered" and "weak on the law" and was dismissed by the Judicial Conduct Committee.

Later in July 2020, Mogoeng decided that the complaint against Hlophe should be adjudicated by the JCC, and said that, if true, the complaint would be grounds for a finding of gross misconduct.

In 2013, Mogoeng was awarded an honorary doctorate by North-West University.