Tom Cloete

Thomas Dante Cloete (born 15 May 1948) is a South African retired judge who served in the Supreme Court of Appeal from January 2003 until his retirement in May 2013. Formerly an advocate and Senior Counsel in Johannesburg, he was appointed to the bench in 1991 as a judge of the Transvaal Provincial Division (later the Gauteng High Court).

Early life and education Cloete was born on 15 May 1948 in Johannesburg. His family moved to Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape in 1954, where his father, Johannes Dante Cloete, was Senior Counsel and later the Judge President of the Eastern Cape Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa.

He attended St Andrew's Preparatory School and St Andrew's College in Grahamstown, matriculating in 1965, and went on to Rhodes University, where he completed a BA in 1969. From 1969 to 1972, he attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, completing his BA in jurisprudence. Cloete served in the appellate court for just over a decade, during which time he was also an ad hoc judge of appeal in the Seychelles in 2003.

Personal life and retirement Cloete retired on 16 May 2013 at the age of 65. He is a trustee of Taco Kuiper's Valley Trust and often serves on the judging panel of the Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism.

He is married to Janet Ritchie, with whom he has two children.