Yvonne Mokgoro

Jennifer Yvonne Mokgoro GOB (19 October 1950 – 9 May 2024) was a South African jurist who served on the Constitutional Court of South Africa from October 1994 to October 2009. She also chaired the South African Law Reform Commission between 1995 and 2011. She qualified as a lawyer in the former Bophuthatswana and was a legal academic before she was appointed to the bench by President Nelson Mandela.

Early life and education Mokgoro was born on 19 October 1950 in Galeshewe, a township in Kimberley in the former Cape Province. Her parents had only a primary education, and she was the first of her siblings to complete high school, matriculating in 1970 at the local St. Boniface High School. In her early 20s, she was arrested for obstruction of justice after she intervened to object when the police arrested a young man for loitering. Although the charge against her was dropped after a brief detention, she was represented by political activist Robert Sobukwe, a family friend who was banished to Kimberley and was one of the few black lawyers in the town; according to Mokgoro, Sobukwe encouraged her to become a lawyer, and she enrolled part-time in legal study shortly afterwards.

Legal career and scholarship While studying for her LLB, Mokgoro worked at the Mmabatho Magistrate's Court as a maintenance officer and public prosecutor. After receiving her LLB, however, she was appointed a lecturer in the University of Bophuthatswana's Department of Jurisprudence, where she worked until 1991, rising through the ranks to become an associate professor.

Constitutional Court: 1994–2009 In October 1994, shortly after the end of apartheid, President Nelson Mandela appointed Mokgoro to the newly established Constitutional Court of South Africa. She was the first black woman to join the bench and, along with Kate O'Regan, was one of two women overall. Notable judgements penned by Mokgoro during that time included the court's majority judgements in Larbi-Odam v MEC for Education, Jaftha v Schoeman, Khosa v Minister of Social Development, and Geldenhuys v National Director of Public Prosecutions.

Throughout much of her service on the bench, Mokgoro was also the chairperson of the South African Law Reform Commission, serving three consecutive terms in the chair between 1995 and 2011. the University of Pretoria's Centre for Human Rights, the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, and the Mandela Rhodes Trust.

Personal life and death At a young age,

On 3 April 2023, Mokgoro was seriously injured in a car crash in the Northern Cape. Mokgoro died on 9 May 2024, at the age of 73.