John Gilbert Kotzé

Sir John Gilbert Kotzé KC (5 November 1849 – 1 April 1940) was an eminent South African jurist.

Early life

Kotzé was born in Cape Town, and was educated there at Tot Nut van het Algemeen and the South African College. His father was Petrus Johannes Kotzé, who owned the Leeuwenhof estate at the foot of Table Mountain and represented Cape Town in two Parliaments, as a member of the House of Assembly, and was twice Mayor of Cape Town.[1] His brother, Rev J.J. Kotzé (older by 17 years), studied for the Church. It was recorded he was a distinguished student at Utrecht, where he graduated summa cum laude and shared the distinction of being the best classical scholar at the University.[1]:27 The earlier written records of the Kotzé family in Germany date back as far as the year 1234 and indicate the family is of noble descent.[1] The spelling of the family name (in Africa) changes from Kotzee as reflected last in 1912 (in the document Master of the Supreme Court re: Johannes Albertus Kotzee) to finally Kotzé in 1916 (in the hand of Salmon Jacobus Petrus Kotzé).

Kotzé undertook further legal training in Britain as a student at the Inner Temple in London, where he met his wife Mary Aurelia Bell.[2] Kotzé became a barrister of the Inner Temple and practiced in Cape Town and Grahamstown from 1874 to 76.

Judicial career

Kotzé was appointed judge of the High Court of the Transvaal in 1877, becoming Chief Justice in 1881. He, together with the rest of the High Court, was unceremoniously dismissed by Paul Kruger following a dispute – as a result of his judgement in the case over (mining rights). Kotze had stood in 1893 as a rival to Kruger in the presidential elections and was seen by Kruger as his long term political rival. Kruger, on this particular occasion, was enraged at the judgement of the High Court in the case of Brown v. Leyds and he dismissed Chief Justice Kotzé in 1898 as President Kruger held his own opinion on the case outcome. The circumstances surrounding this judgement are worth exploring as they are illustrative of the Legal and general state of public administration in the Transvaal at the time during the British Rule and the Volksraad's Constitution, a "document born of political compromise between warring factions rather than any kind of coherent legal document". The Constitution was seen as "so vague and obscure in so many areas that it had never been treated with the seriousness and respect which such a document usually merits.

Kruger's action was widely seen as unwarranted interference with the independence of the judiciary." The Second Boer War soon followed in 1899, with every Boer town in the hands of the British, "President Kruger fled/went in exile in the Netherlands". Over 26,000 women and children were to perish in the War's concentration camps.

In 1898 Kotze resumed legal practice in Pretoria. He was appointed Attorney-General of Southern Rhodesia[3] in 1900, and took silk as King′s Counsel in April 1902.[4] Appointed judge of the Eastern Districts Court of the Cape Colony in 1903, he became Judge-President in 1904. Appointed judge of the Supreme Court of the Cape in 1913, becoming Judge-President in 1920. Judge of Appeal from 1922, retiring in 1927.

To conclude some historic career highlights, it is noted in a nutshell by the SCA Homepage that "the judicial career of Sir John Gilbert Kotzé (1849–1940) spanned 50 years from his appointment in 1877, when he was a mere 27 years old, until his retirement in 1927. As chief justice of the Transvaal Republic, during the Kruger dispute, Kotze held that the courts had the right to test against the Constitution, and declare invalid, resolutions and acts passed by legislature/s". To date, Books of "Latin and High Dutch of the Roman-Dutch old authorities is occasionally still used, as at times it is necessary for a modern judge to delve into these old authorities to search for the origin and scope of an otherwise obscure legal rule or doctrine".

Honours and awards

Kotzé was knighted in 1917.

Judge Kotze's personal book collection of over 1500 books, is still to date referred to and used by the Supreme Court of Appeal Judges. It is said of Kotze:- "a noted scholar, a man of immense learning and a collector of books, his collection of 1556 titles, bought by the government in 1927 for £800, formed the nucleus of the then fledgling library of the Appellate Division, and is still retained as a separate collection" by the Court Library. "Access to the library is normally restricted to the Judges of the court." http://www.justice.gov.za/sca/historysca.htm

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References
  1. Kotze, Sir John Gilbert (1934). Biographical Memoirs and Reminiscences. Cape Town: Maskew Miller. p. 827. Family History CH 1
  2. Foster's Our Noble and Gentle Families of Royal Descent, 1887, pp. 670 and 676.
  3. Holders of Administrative and Ministerial Office 1894–1964 by F.M.G. Willson and G.C. Passmore (Source Book no. 3, Department of Government, University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Salisbury, 1966)
  4. "No. 27424". The London Gazette. 11 April 1902. p. 2416.
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