Johann van der Westhuizen

Johann Vincent van der Westhuizen (born 26 May 1952) is a South African who served on the Constitutional Court of South Africa from February 2004 to January 2016. He was a professor of law at the University of Pretoria from 1980 to 1999, when he joined the bench as a judge of the High Court of South Africa.

Born to a civil servant stationed in Windhoek, South West Africa, van der Westhuizen attended high school in Pretoria and studied law at the University of Pretoria, where he completed his doctorate in 1980. Thereafter he was a professor at the university's Faculty of Law, serving additionally as the head of the Department of Legal History, Comparative Law and Legal Philosophy from 1980 to 1994 and as the founding director of the influential Centre for Human Rights from 1986 to 1998. During the post-apartheid transition, he was additionally a legal adviser to the bodies that drafted the Interim Constitution and 1996 Constitution.

In January 1999, van der Westhuizen joined the High Court bench as a judge of the Transvaal Provincial Division and an appointee of President Nelson Mandela. He remained in the High Court until February 2004, when President Thabo Mbeki elevated him to the Constitutional Court. After his retirement in January 2016, he served a three-year term as Inspecting Judge of the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services from April 2016 to December 2019.

Early life and education Van der Westhuizen was born on 26 May 1952 in Windhoek in South West Africa (now Namibia), where he attended the Eros Laerskool. His father, Vincent, was a South African civil servant who, in his spare time, wrote poetry and fiction for popular magazines such as Huisgenoot; in van der Westhuizen's words, he "wrote Apartheid propaganda by day and revolutionary Afrikaans poetry about the red flag of the resistance by night". He described his mother, Anna, as believing that "one must: One, save money; two, obey God; and three, obey the government." Although he was admitted as an advocate of the Supreme Court of South Africa in 1976,

Academic career In 1980, van der Westhuizen was made a professor in the University of Pretoria's Faculty of Law, and he was also appointed as the head of the Department of Legal History, Comparative Law and Legal Philosophy, a position he held until 1994. He also acted as a consultant and in-house advocate for the Legal Resources Centre and was a member of the board of trustees of Lawyers for Human Rights.

Pretoria High Court: 1999–2004 On 1 January 1999, President Nelson Mandela appointed van der Westhuizen to the bench as a judge of the Transvaal Provincial Division of the High Court of South Africa. He joined the apex court on 1 February 2004; President Jacob Zuma appointed Leona Theron to fill van der Westhuizen's seat on the Constitutional Court bench.

Retirement On 1 April 2016, van der Westhuizen succeeded retired justice Thembile Skweyiya as the Inspecting Judge of the Judicial Inspectorate for Correctional Services. President Cyril Ramaphosa extended his three-year term to 31 December 2019, whereupon he was succeeded as Inspecting Judge by retired justice Edwin Cameron. He also contributes to the Mail & Guardian. In 2021, he was one of six members of Johan Vande Lanotte's Turkey Tribunal, an independent international tribunal on human rights abuses in Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Turkey.

Honours On International Human Rights Day in 2013, the University of Pretoria awarded van der Westhuizen an honorary LLD for "his significant contribution to the South African human rights practice and discourse".

Personal life He is married to Sarojini Persaud, with whom he has three children, one daughter and two sons.