DURBAN, JUNE 18: Ismail Mahomed, South Africa's first non-white Chief Justice and anti-apartheid campaigner of Indian orgin, has died of cancer at a Johannesburg clinic at the age of 69, family sources said.Justice Mahomed, who represented scores of anti-apartheid leaders during the height of apartheid, reached the pinnacle of his career when he was appointed Chief Justice by former President Nelson Mandela in 1996. Earlier, he had become South Africa's first black judge in 1991.Born in a devout Muslim family in Pretoria, Justice Mahomed was considered one of the country's finest legal brains and human rights activists.He joined the South African Bar in 1957 after studying law at the University of the Witwatersrand. He was unable to rent chambers in the building which housed the Johannesburg Bar, because it fell into a white area under the Group Areas Act.For 12 years, he was forced to borrow desk-space from colleagues who were out in court, resorting to the library when there was no room available and making it almost impossible to consult with clients.Even after obtaining a Group Areas "permit" in 1969, he was barred from using the common room for another five years by which time he had become South Africa's first black senior counsel.A workaholic recognised as one of the most gifted orators at the South African Bar, Mahomed was an authority on the Group Areas Act and became one of the leading experts on administrative and constitutional law.Justice Mahomed defended many anti-apartheid activists in political trials and was legal adviser to Swapo in Namibia.He was the author of Namibia's Constitution which abolished capital punishment and later became that country's Chief Justice.He also served as judge of the high court in Swaziland, Lesotho and Botswana. In one of the most celebrated political trials in 1986, Mahomed defended Mewa Ramgobin and 16 other Indian and African political leaders who were charged with high treason in Pietermaritzburg.After a trial lasting more than two years, Justice Mahomed was able to obtain freedom for all the trialists.
