(image source: OFFICE OF THE CHIEF JUSTICE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA)
ProBono.Org would like to extend its deepest condolences in honour of Justice Lourens Ackermann – appointed among the first Constitutional Court judges appointed by President Nelson Mandela in August 1994. His focus on human dignity as a constitutional value was central to his life’s work as a judge.
His judicial conscience, as his colleague Justice Kate O’Regan has written, “was always one that was not too sure that it is right. He would listen closely to his colleagues and gnaw at legal problems incessantly till he felt he had found the right way forward. Once however he had set a course, he was implacable in pursuing it.”
While we mourn the loss of an eminent jurist, we celebrate a life that was well lived a life committed to the cause of justice, dignity and equality in his country and his contributions to the development of the law, justic and constitutionalism in South Africa.
While Llife can be fleeting, a life lived to the fullest leaves fond memories. Although this is a difficult and painful time for his family and in extending to them our heartfelt condolences, we wish them courage and strength to bear this irreparable loss.
Rest in peace •
