Zak Yacoob

Zakeria Mohammed Yacoob ( born March 3, 1948 in Durban ) is a South African lawyer and judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa.

Youth and Education

Yacoob comes from a family of Indian origin. At the age of 16 months, he contracted meningitis and became blind. He attended the Arthur Blaxall School for the Blind in Durban. He then studied English and Civil Law at University College (now the University of KwaZulu -Natal) in Durban, graduating in 1969 with a bachelor's degree. In 1972 he also acquired a Bachelor of Laws. Even at the university he was active politically and participated in the first election of a student representative.

Career

Yacoob worked from 1973 to 1991 as a lawyer at the court in Durban and led a law practice. He represented 1984, the Durban Six with the British government, six South African civil rights activist who had rescued from imminent arrest in the British Consulate in Durban and asked for asylum. On their behalf, he negotiated with the British government and spoke before the United Nations in New York. He defended members of the United Democratic Front in the Delmas Treason Trial, and the African National Congress in the Vula Trial.

In May 1991, he was appointed as a judge. Nelson Mandela appointed him in 1998 to the South African Constitutional Court.

Activism

Yacoob was active against apartheid, for the rights of ethnic Indian South Africans as well as the blind. He was the chairman of the Civil Rights Committee of the Durban Committee of Ten and the South African National Council for the Blind. From 1981 to 1991 he served on the board of the Natal Indian Congress.