Lex Mpati
{{Short description|South African judge (born 1949)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Lex Mpati
| honorific-suffix =
| birth_name =
| image =
| office = President of the Supreme Court of Appeal
| term_start = 15 August 2008
| term_end = May 2016
| predecessor = Craig Howie
| successor = Mandisa Maya
| deputy = Louis Harms
Kenneth Mthiyane
Mahomed Navsa {{small|(acting)}}
Mandisa Maya
| office1 = Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Appeal
| term_start1 = 1 January 2003
| term_end1 = 14 August 2008
| predecessor1 = Office created
| successor1 = Louis Harms
| office2 = Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal
| term_start2 = 9 December 2000
| term_end2 = May 2016
| predecessor2 =
| successor2 =
| office3 = Judge of the High Court
| term_start3 = 1 February 1997
| term_end3 = 8 December 2000
| office4 = Chancellor of Rhodes University
| term_start4 = 4 April 2013
| term_end4 =
| predecessor4 = Jakes Gerwel
| successor4 =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1949|09|05}}
| birth_place = Durban, Natal Province,
Union of South Africa
| spouse = Mireille Nontobeko
| children =
| alma_mater = Rhodes University
| religion =
| signature =
| president1 = Craig Howie
| appointer = Thabo Mbeki
| appointer1 = Thabo Mbeki
| appointer2 = Thabo Mbeki
| 1blankname3 = Division
| 1namedata3 = Eastern Cape
| appointer3 = Nelson Mandela
}}
Lex Mpati (born 5 September 1949) is a South African retired judge who was the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa from August 2008 to May 2016. He was appointed to the bench in February 1997 as a judge of the Eastern Cape Division and he joined the Supreme Court as a puisne judge in December 2000. Before his elevation to the presidency, he was the Supreme Court's first Deputy President from 2003 to 2008. He was also an acting judge in the Constitutional Court in 2007.
Born in Durban, Mpati grew up in the Eastern Cape, spending his childhood in Fort Beaufort and his adolescence in Grahamstown. He entered legal practice as an attorney in 1985 and was admitted as an advocate in 1989. In 1996, during a three-year stint at the Legal Resources Centre, he was appointed as Senior Counsel. Since 2013, he has been the chancellor of Rhodes University, his alma mater.
Early life and education
Mpati was born on 5 September 1949 in Durban in the former Natal Province.{{Cite web |date= |title=Judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal |url=https://www.justice.gov.za/sca/judges_cv.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110052124/https://www.justice.gov.za/sca/judges_cv.html |archive-date=2017-01-10 |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa}} However, during his infancy, his family moved to a farm in Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape, the hometown of his maternal grandparents.{{Cite web |last=Dugmore |first=Heather |date=17 March 2013 |title=Mpati: Thorny road to top |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/mpati-thorny-road-to-top-20150429 |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=News24 |language=en-US}} He attended primary school at St Joseph’s Catholic School in Fort Beaufort, walking five kilometres to school daily and herding cattle in the morning and evenings. Thereafter he was sent to Grahamstown, where, living in Fingo Village, he matriculated at Mary Waters High School in 1967.{{Cite journal |date=1997 |title=High Court: New Judges |url=https://www.gcbsa.co.za/law-journals/1997/may/1997-may-vol010-no1-pp21-22.pdf |journal=Consultus |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=22 |via=General Council of the Bar of South Africa}}
Mpati's first job out of high school was as a petrol attendant at Albany Auto Services, a petrol station on Beaufort Street in Grahamstown, where he worked until 1970. During his first year, in December 1968, he was arrested for illegally operating as a taxi driver, having borrowed his grandfather's car to make extra money transporting visitors from the local train station; he successfully defended himself in court, an experience that sparked his interest in law. During the same period, he regularly sat in on hearings in the magistrate's court during his time off work.{{Cite journal |last=Watt-Pringle |first=Craig |date=2019 |title=Tribute to Justice Lex Mpati |url=https://gcbsa.co.za/law-journals/2019/december/2019-december-vol032-no3-pp08-09.pdf |journal=Advocate |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=8–9 |via=General Council of the Bar of South Africa}}
Over the next decade, Mpati worked as a furniture salesman and as a bartender at the Settler's Inn Motel. He enrolled at Rhodes University in 1979, aged 30, and he completed a BA in law and Xhosa in 1981 and an LLB in 1983. He attended Rhodes under a special permit required by black students under apartheid, and he was the second black student to complete an LLB at the university.{{Cite web |date=2013-02-25 |title=Rhodes chancellor 'will inspire' humility |url=https://www.ru.ac.za/graduationgateway/chancellor/articles/rhodeschancellorwillinspirehumility.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIt%20is%20a%20great%20pleasure,vice-chancellor%20Dr%20Saleem%20Badat. |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=Rhodes University |language=en-US}}
Legal career
Mpati had begun clerking for a law firm in Grahamstown during his final year of law school, and he stayed with the firm after graduation to complete his articles of clerkship. After he was admitted as an attorney in February 1985, he remained in Grahamstown, working primarily on criminal cases.
In February 1989, Mpati was admitted to the Grahamstown Bar as an advocate. He worked in his own chambers until March 1993, when he took up the post of in-house counsel at the Grahamstown office of the Legal Resources Centre, a prominent human rights law organisation. He took silk in April 1996 and shortly afterwards left the Legal Resources Centre to accept appointment as an acting judge in the Supreme Court of South Africa (soon to become the High Court).
Eastern Cape Division: 1997–2000
On 1 February 1997, Mpati joined the bench permanently as a judge of the Eastern Cape Division. His tenure in the High Court was brief: he was appointed as an acting judge in the Supreme Court of Appeal on 1 June 1999, and he remained in the appellate court until he was elevated permanently the following year.
Supreme Court of Appeal: 2000–2016
In October 2000, Mpati was among the candidates whom the Judicial Service Commission shortlisted and interviewed for possible appointment to four judicial vacancies on the Supreme Court bench.{{Cite web |date=2000-08-11 |title=Chance to turbo-charge reform |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2000-08-11-chance-to-turbo-charge-reform/ |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} Still acting as an appellate judge at that time, he was considered a frontrunner.{{Cite web |date=2000-10-27 |title=In judgement of the judges |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2000-10-27-in-judgement-of-the-judges/ |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}
After its hearings, the Judicial Service Commission recommended Mpati and three others (Edwin Cameron, Ian Farlam, and Mahomed Navsa) for appointment, and their appointments were confirmed by President Thabo Mbeki at the end of the month.{{Cite news |date=31 October 2000 |title=Mbeki approves appointment of judges |url=https://allafrica.com/stories/200010310043.html |access-date=21 January 2024 |work=WOZA}} Mpati became the first black judge to sit permanently in the Supreme Court.{{Cite web |date=7 November 2002 |title=Appeal court president named |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/appeal-court-president-named-20021106 |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}
= Deputy presidency and presidency =
In November 2002, President Mbeki appointed Mpati as Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Appeal; he deputised Judge President Craig Howie, who was appointed at the same time. He took office on 1 January 2003. He was considered a likely candidate to assume the presidency upon Howie's retirement,{{Cite web |date=2003-01-27 |title=Great strides have been made in judicial transformation |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2003-01-27-great-strides-have-been-made-in-judicial-transformation/ |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} and, indeed, he succeeded Howie on 15 August 2008.
As Supreme Court President, Mpati was a member of the Judicial Service Commission. In that capacity, he chaired a high-profile 2009 disciplinary inquiry into the conduct of Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe.{{Cite web |date=2009-03-28 |title=Hlophe in the hot seat (again) |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2009-03-28-hlophe-in-the-hot-seat-again/ |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}
= Constitutional Court =
Mpati was an acting judge in the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1 June to 30 November 2007. In 2011, as Sandile Ngcobo approached retirement, he was regarded as a possible candidate for appointment as Chief Justice of South Africa,{{Cite web |date=2011-08-05 |title=The ConCourt contenders |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2011-08-05-the-concourt-contenders/ |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}{{Cite web |date=2011-08-12 |title=Ncgobo's last judgment |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2011-08-12-ncgobos-last-judgment/ |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}{{Cite web |date=7 August 2011 |title=Moseneke left out in the cold again |url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2011-08-07-moseneke-left-out-in-the-cold-again/ |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=Sunday Times |language=en-ZA}} but Mogoeng Mogoeng was ultimately nominated instead.
Retirement
Mpati retired from the judiciary in May 2016,{{Cite web |date=26 May 2016 |title=Statement on the Cabinet meeting of 25 May 2016 |url=https://www.gcis.gov.za/newsroom/media-releases/statement-cabinet-meeting-25-may-2016 |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=Government Communication and Information System}} and Mandisa Maya succeeded him as Supreme Court President shortly thereafter.{{Cite web |last=Evans |first=Jenni |date=6 March 2017 |title=Judge Maya makes SCA history... again |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/judge-maya-makes-sca-history-again-20170306 |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}
In October 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Mpati as the chairperson of a commission of inquiry into allegations of impropriety regarding the Public Investment Corporation (best known as the PIC Commission).{{Cite web |date=2018-10-18 |title=Ramaphosa appoints commission of inquiry into alleged PIC 'improprieties' |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2018-10-18-ramaphosa-appoints-commission-of-inquiry-into-alleged-pic-improprieties/ |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} He led a three-member panel which also included Gill Marcus and Emmanuel Lediga and which opened its hearings in January 2019.{{Cite web |date=2019-01-21 |title=PIC inquiry gets underway with nuts and bolts of investment decisions |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2019-01-21-pic-inquiry-gets-underway-with-nuts-and-bolts-of-investment-decisions/ |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}
In November 2022, he was appointed to lead an independent investigation into alleged misgovernance at the University of Cape Town during the tenure of vice-chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng.{{Cite web |last=Basson |first=Adriaan |date=11 November 2022 |title=UCT's troubles are worrying, says retired judge Lex Mpati |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/exclusive-ucts-troubles-are-worrying-says-retired-judge-lex-mpati-20221111 |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}
Honours and awards
Mpati holds two honorary LLDs, one awarded by Rhodes University in 2004 and the other awarded by Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in 2011. He was professor extraordinary at the University of the Free State from 2004 to 2008. In April 2013,{{Cite news |title=Justice Mpati to be installed as the new Chancellor at Rhodes |url=http://www.ru.ac.za/vice-chancellor/chancellor/news/justicempatitobeinstalledasthenewchancelloratrhodes.html |access-date=2018-01-11 |work=Rhodes University |language=en}} he was inaugurated as the chancellor of his alma mater, succeeding Jakes Gerwel, who had died in late 2012.{{Cite web |date=25 October 2013 |title=Judge to lead university |url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2013-02-25-judge-to-lead-university/ |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=Sunday Times |language=en-ZA}}
Personal life
In 1973 in Grahamstown, Mpati met and married Mireille Nontobeko, who trained as a teacher and later as a nurse. They have four children, two of whom became lawyers.
A keen rugby player, he was a founding member of the South Eastern Districts Rugby Union and played at centre for the union. He served on committees of the South African Rugby Union and South African Rugby Football Union, as well as on the legal committee of SANZAR.{{Cite web |date=12 April 2015 |title=SARU boss takes aim at SANZAR |url=https://rugby365.com/tournaments/super-rugby/news-super-rugby/saru-boss-takes-aim-at-sanzar/ |access-date=2021-03-03 |website=Rugby365 |language=en}}
Asked in 2009 about his race, Mpati joked that he was "
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/lex-mpati Lex Mpati] at South African History Online
- [https://www.gov.za/speeches/farewell-function-president-supreme-court-appeal-20-aug-2016-0000 Retirement tribute] by Justice Minister Michael Masutha (20 August 2016)
- [https://www.justice.gov.za/commissions/pic/index.html PIC Commission] website
{{Rhodes University}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Mpati, Lex}}
Category:Rhodes University alumni
Category:Judges of the Eastern Cape High Court
Category:Judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal (South Africa)
{{Authority control}}
Category:South African Senior Counsel
Category:20th-century South African judges