Reflecting on a distinguished career
By Shanice Naidoo
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Cape Town - From shoe salesman to the bench of one of the most prominent high courts in South Africa.
While Western Cape High Court Judge Siraj Desai thought he was destined for success, as he retires at the age of 69, he can proudly look back at an illustrious career spanning 43 years and making an immense contribution to the South African legal profession.
Judge Desai is well known for the cases that made the papers, putting people like triple murderer Henri Van Breda behind bars for three life terms and winning victories for the poor. But before he took a seat on the bench, he earned his stripes as an activist lawyer representing people accused apartheid crimes who often could not afford his services.
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Granting an eviction order was hurtful to Judge Siraj Desai during his 25-year tenure in the Western Cape High Court. Every time he granted an order it reminded him of the evictions in District Six during the apartheid era in 1966.
As a learner at Trafalgar High, he was helpless to stop the old regime declaring District Six a white area and bulldozers flattening homes. On Monday 14 December Desai, who effectively retired last Friday, took a trip down memory lane with
Maverick Citizen.
In January 2021 Desai reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70. However, the high court went into recess on Friday 11 December and reopens late in January 2021, which means he has finished his term as a judge. He became a judge on 1 July 1995.
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