Justice Ismail Mahomed (5 July 1931 - 17 June 2000) was a South African lawyer who served as the Chief Justice of South Africa and the Supreme Court of Namibia[1], and co-authored the constitution of Namibia.[1]
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Mahomed was born in Pretoria, his parents were Indian merchants.[1] He graduated from Pretoria Indian Boys' High School[2] in 1950. He received his BA from University of the Witwatersrand in 1953 and the following year received his BA honours with distinction in political science. He finished his Bachelor of Laws in 1957.[3]
Mahomed was refused admission to the Pretoria bar association, as it was reserved for white lawyers, but was able to join the bar in Johannesburg.[3] However, because of the Group Areas Act, he was banned from getting an office of his own, and was forced to practice out of his colleagues' offices while they were away.[1] In the 1960s he served as a lawyer in Botswana. Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.[3] In 1974 he became the first non-white in South African history to take silk.[3] In 1979 he was appointed to the appeal court of Swaziland and in 1982 was made an Appeal Judge in Lesotho, where he would later become president of the Appeals court.[3] He was made an English Barrister in 1984.[3] In 1991 he became the chair of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa[2][3] and the country's first non-white judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa.[2] He was later appointed to the Appeal Court[2]. He was made a judge of the Constitutional Court in 1995.[2] In 1996 he was made the Chief Justice of South Africa by President Nelson Mandela.[4]
Mahomed died of pancreatic cancer in Johannesburg on 17 June 2000, shortly after leaving the bench.[1]
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| Preceded by Michael Corbett |
Chief Justice of South Africa 1998–2000 |
Succeeded by Arthur Chaskalson |
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