Justice Yvonne Mokgoro
“We are one people, we have been divided in the past. The past injustice must be converted into current and future justice for all of us equally.”
Justice Yvonne Mokgoro was an activist during the apartheid era and has dedicated her life to the struggle for democracy. Her commitment to human rights is evident in her work as an activist, an academic, and as a judge. She is renowned for her personal style, compassion, and the encouragement she offers especially to young female students and lawyers.
David Harrison
Early Life and Career
Yvonne Mokgoro was born in Galeshewe Township near Kimberley in the Northern Cape. She matriculated at St Boniface High School in 1970. She studied at the University of Bophuthatswana (now North-West University) from 1982 to 1987 where she obtained B. Juris LLB and LLM degrees. Her qualifications were obtained part-time while working to fund her studies. Some of these positions were as a nursing assistant and retail sales assistant. She was also a maintenance officer and public prosecutor in the then Mmabatho Magistrate’s Court. She obtained a second LLM degree at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States in 1990.
I ended up joining community politics and we started the first ANC branch in that area in Bophuthatswana. I was part of the ANC executive in the Northern Cape and headed the portfolio of justice for women.
Yvonne Mokgoro
Justice of the first bench of the Constitutional Court
In her own words, Mokgoro describes why she studied law and pursued a legal career:
I had this special experience when I met Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, who was then banished to Kimberley after he had been released from Robben Island. He was one of only two lawyers in the township. At the time, I had objected quite vehemently to the arrest of a young man who had not done anything wrong. For that, the police threw me into a police van and locked me up. My family got Sobukwe to represent me.
I lamented to Sobukwe about the lack of black men who study law, especially because we needed so many lawyers in the township. He asked, ‘What do you mean when you say, why don’t we have more men studying law?’ I said, ‘Well, the legal profession is a male-dominated profession, and I don’t see a chance that I could be a lawyer.’ He then said, ‘There is no law that precludes women from studying law.’ And the rest is history.
Yvonne Mokgoro
Justice of the first bench of the Constitutional Court
Appointment to the Constitutional Court
Sometimes when I meet people who were part of the interviewing panel, they would say to me, ‘You were so nervous’. And it’s so funny, I didn’t feel nervous at all. I just had a conversation about my work, about who I am … My speciality at the time were customary law and legal philosophy. I loved to talk about my views about the Constitution, the tensions between African traditional law, values, and the values of the Constitution, how I see those. So, I really enjoyed the interview.
Yvonne Mokgoro
Justice of the first bench of the Constitutional Court
After the first democratic election in 1994, President Nelson Mandela appointed Mokgoro to serve on the newly established Constitutional Court. Mokgoro was one of two women and the first black woman to serve as a judge of the Constitutional Court, which she did for 15 years.
I heard about my appointment while I was attending a freedom of expression media seminar in Pretoria. At the time, we were exploring the idea of human rights protection in a democracy … And while I was standing at the podium, people in the audience started applauding in the middle of my speech. I wondered what was going on because I hadn’t said anything which needed applause. They told me that they had just heard that I’d been appointed to the Constitutional Court!
Yvonne Mokgoro
Justice of the first bench of the Constitutional Court
On being the first black woman judge appointed to the Court:
Actually, when I was interviewed there was this recurring question by the media – ‘How do you feel about being the first black woman appointed to the Constitutional Court?’ And I had the same answer for them all. I had mixed feelings. First, I thought it was about time this country had a black woman judge. Second, I felt an enormous responsibility … And I pledged to myself that I had to make something good out of this.
Yvonne Mokgoro
Justice of the first bench of the Constitutional Court
On her time at the Court:
We would sit around the conference table and have heated debates, and afterwards we could be as collegial as ever. We had a great understanding of each other and where we were coming from. We had great respect for each other’s backgrounds and we could listen … For example, I could write a judgment for the first time and base it on the notion of ubuntu and people were open to receiving this new thought and make it part of their thinking and understand the idea.
Yvonne Mokgoro
Justice of the first bench of the Constitutional Court
The Constitution is the basis for our life now and forever. I don’t mean that it is sacrosanct and that it cannot be changed. What I mean is that the Constitution is a social contract. It is that which we must have a common understanding of and appreciation for. When we feel that life has to be different, when we feel that our objectives have to shift, I think we must be allowed to shift, except on that which is fundamentally just.
Yvonne Mokgoro
Justice of the first bench of the Constitutional Court
Judgments of Interest
S v Makwanyane (1995)
In her separate and concurring judgment in S v Makwanyane – the case that dealt with abolishing the death penalty in South Africa – Justice Mokgoro secured a place for ubuntu in our jurisprudence. She explained that:
Generally, ubuntu translates as humanness. In its most fundamental sense, it translates as personhood and morality. Metaphorically, it expresses itself in umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, describing the significance of group solidarity on survival issues so central to the survival of communities. While it envelops the key values of group solidarity, compassion, respect, human dignity, conformity to basic norms and collective unity, in its fundamental sense it denotes humanity and morality. Its spirit emphasises respect for human dignity, marking a shift from confrontation to conciliation.
Justice Yvonne Mokgoro
the Makwanyane judgment, 6 June 1995
Khosa and Others v Minister of Social Development (2004)
In this case the Constitutional Court held that the Constitution vests the right to social security in “everyone”, and that permanent residents are bearers of this right. Justice Mokgoro, writing on behalf of the Court, found that the exclusion of permanent residents from the social security scheme is not a reasonable way of achieving the realisation of the right to social security.
A society must seek to ensure that the basic necessities of life are accessible to all if it is to be a society in which human dignity, freedom, and equality are foundational.
Justice Yvonne Mokgoro
the Khosa judgment, 4 March 2004
The people in this case were originally Mozambican citizens who had come to South Africa, and had settled in Limpopo. They had been provided with social security grants. These were people who had been living in South Africa since the 1980s, and had become part of the communities in which they lived. They paid their taxes like every South African. But then somebody decided that they were foreign nationals and therefore not entitled to these grants which were then taken away … Based on the value of ubuntu, that action is not justifiable. There was unanimous support in the Court for that view.
The idea of ubuntu, that all of us are connected at that human level, is very important. Long after our days at the Court and long after the judgment was written, we experienced attacks on foreign nationals. I closed my eyes and I thought about ubuntu wishing I could stand somewhere and say this is not justified, this is not right, it cannot be like that.
Yvonne Mokgoro
Justice of the first bench of the Constitutional Court
Life After the Constitutional Court
Mokgoro was the chairperson of the SA Law Reform Commission from 1995 until the end of her third term in 2011. In 2015, she received the President Order of the Baobab in Bronze for her outstanding contribution to the field of Law and the administration of justice. She currently chairs the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, and serves on the Mandela-Rhodes Trust, the South African Institute, and the African Centre for Justice Innovation. In 2018, Mokgoro was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to lead an inquiry into the serious allegations and misconduct of senior members of the National Prosecuting Authority.
Family and Personal Life:
My dad was the proudest man, that’s what I remember mostly … When I think about the inauguration and when I look at the pictures, the first thing that comes to my mind is my family, how my family felt about it. My dad felt that he was indirectly making a contribution to this democracy.
Yvonne Mokgoro
Justice of the first bench of the Constitutional Court
Mokgoro was married to Tebogo Job Mokgoro, a South African politician and academic who serves as the Premier of North West. They have four children and six grandchildren.
In the words of others:
With Yvonne, I don’t know why exactly, but we were so in tune with each other in relation to so many things, not just ideas, but style and voice and response and feeling. Maybe the feminism in me and the masculinism in her, you know, found a meeting place.
Once we were discussing an education case, and, I think she won’t mind me mentioning that she started crying. She remembered her problems of getting an education, and just suddenly she choked. It was very moving. And it was in answer to something that I’d said. We were like brother and sister, you know, and it shocked me that something I’d said had provoked tears of painful memory for her, and when she explained her tears, I said, ‘but that’s what we have to overcome as a society, you know, Yvonne, we have to find a way of transcending that sense of being blocked, trapped by stinging emotion.’
Albie Sachs
former Justice of the Constitutional Court
It was a great privilege to clerk for Justice Mokgoro. She was the embodiment of grace and compassion, with a well-hidden steely core. She was also – which was most welcome to me as a fledgling lawyer – a wonderful mentor and boss: genuinely appreciative of commentary or counter-arguments, understanding of mistakes (others or hers), quick with advice and quicker to laugh. She was the kind of person for whom you wanted to do your best, just because she deserved it.
David Simonsz
former law clerk to Justice Mokgoro
Justice Mokgoro was a delightfully pleasant person who was always impeccably dressed and smiling. My fondest memories of her was when she took time out to chat over a meal with her secretary and clerks and related stories about her role in various international projects. She inspired me, clerking for her being my very first job, to want to go out and make a difference in the world.
Nazreena Sayed
ormer law clerk to Justice Mokgoro
