Personal details
Cecil Mpho Somyalo was born in Qumbu, 50km outside Umtata. He is married and has two sons and one daughter.
Education
Somyalo obtained his BA degree from the University of Fort Hare. He later studied at the University of South Africa, obtaining his UED in 1960 and Dip Juris in 1970.
Professional history
Somyalo taught English, History and Latin for a few years at St John’s College in Umtata and Cowan High School in Port Elizabeth. In 1971 he was admitted as an attorney and practiced for 24 years in Port Elizabeth. In 1990 Somyalo qualified as an Arbitrator under the auspices of IMSSA, arbitrating mainly labour disputes throughout the country but particularly in the Eastern Cape. He was appointed to act as a Judge of the Transkei Division in 1995 and promoted to Judge President of that Division from 1997-1999. In July 1999 he was promoted to Judge President of the Eastern Cape Division.
Somyalo has also been Vice President of the Rules Board for Courts of Law for some 10 years and was appointed in 1999 by the then Chief Justice I Mahomed to serve on a Committee chaired by Judge LC Harms to draft the present Code of Conduct for Judges as well as the Procedures for Complaints Against Judges.
In 2001 Somyalo was appointed as an acting justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa for two terms.
Other activities
Community
- Community Police Forum: Representing SANCO
- ECA Chamber of Commerce (Hon Member)
- Trustee, Reformed Presbyterian Church
- Founder Member of the Friends of Dora Nginza Hospital
Interests and hobbies
Somyalo enjoys cricket, rugby and listening to music.
Personal details
- 19 August 1957
- Wife: Shirley
- Two children
Education
- Matric: Lerothodi High School, Bethanie
- B Juris (1981) University of Limpopo, Polokwane
- LLB (1983) University of Limpopo, Polokwane
- LLM (1992) University of Johannesburg
- Diploma in Advanced Corporate Law (1996) University of Johannesburg
Professional history
- Candidate Attorney, Enver Surty Attorneys, Zinniaville: 1984 – 1986
- Admitted as an Attorney: 1986
- Partner at Bosielo, Motlanthe & Lekabe: 1987 – 1992
- Senior Partner, Ronnie Bosielo Attorneys: 1992 – 1998
- Admitted as an Advocate: 1998
- Practising Advocate: 1999 – 2001
- Judge of the High Court of South Africa, North Gauteng High Court: 2001 – 2009
- Acting Judge of the High Court, Namibia: 2001
- Acting Judge President, Northern Cape High Court: 2007 – 2008
- Acting Judge, Supreme Court of Appeal: 2009
- Judge of Appeal, Supreme Court of Appeal: 2009
Personal details
Barend Rudolph du Plessis was born in Pretoria on 11 March 1947. He married his wife, Maria, in 1971 and the couple has five adult daughters. The couple lives in Pretoria.
Education
Du Plessis matriculated at the Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool, Pretoria in 1964. He studied at the University of Pretoria from 1966 to 1970 and was awarded the LLB-degree at the beginning of 1971.
Professional history
After serving as a candidate attorney, Du Plessis was in 1974 admitted as an attorney of the Transvaal Provincial Division of the High Court. He practiced as an attorney for two years and was then, in 1975, admitted as an advocate. He joined the Pretoria Bar where he practiced as junior counsel until 1987 when he took silk. He practiced as senior counsel until his appointment as a judge in 1989.
In 1987 and in 1988, Du Plessis held acting appointments as a judge for respectively two months and one month. On 1 December 1989 he was permanently appointed as a judge of the Transvaal Provincial Division of the High Court, stationed in Pretoria. He still holds that appointment.
Du Plessis held acting appointments in the Labour Appeal Court and in the Constitutional Court. He also held an acting appointment in the High Court of Namibia, ad hoc for a specific case.
Other activities
- For several years, Du Plessis was a member of the governing body of the Nuwe Wending School for the Mentally Handicapped.
- He also served as the honorary legal advisor to the Eastern and Northern Transvaal regional synods of the Dutch Reformed Church.
- Du Plessis was an honorary secretary of the Pretoria Association of Advocates for three years. Thereafter he was elected as a member of the Bar Council and served as such for several years until his appointment to the bench.
- He was a delegate to several annual conferences of the General Council of the Bar of South Africa, and he was the chairperson of that body’s Laws and Administration Committee. He also represented the GCB on the Rules Board for Courts.
- Since his appointment to the bench, Du Plessis has participated in several training programmes for newly appointed judges. He also delivered papers on judgment writing to international conferences hosted by the Justice College and he took part in a training seminar for magistrates in Namibia.
- Du Plessis is the project leader of the South African Law Reform Commission’s project on assisted decision making.