Speeches

Tribute by the Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, the Hon JH Jeffery, MP, at a Memorial Service for the late Judge Lebotsang “Ronnie” Bosielo, held at the Calvary Methodist Church in Midrand, 17 May 2018

Programme Director,
Mrs Bosielo and members of the Bosielo family
Members of the judiciary
Ladies and gentlemen

A great tree has fallen.
It is with much sadness that we say farewell to one of our country’s legal stalwarts.

Many of us know Judge Bosielo as a Judge at the Supreme Court of Appeal and an acting judge of the Constitutional Court.
We know him as a man who dedicated his life to the pursuit of justice.
After obtaining his B Juris degree from the University of Limpopo in 1981, then his LLB degree in 1983, he did his articles of clerkship as a candidate attorney with Enver Surty Attorneys in Zinniaville.

He was admitted as an attorney in 1986 and, from 1987 to 1992, he was a partner at Bosielo, Motlanthe & Lekabe Attorneys.
He obtained his LLM degree from University of Johannesburg in 1992 as well as a Diploma in Advanced Corporate Law, also from UJ, in 1996.
He was admitted as an Advocate in 1998 and practiced as such until 2001 when he appointed as Judge of the North Gauteng High Court.
This position he held until 2009 when he was appointed a Judge of Appeal in Supreme Court of Appeal. He was also an Acting Judge of the High Court, Namibia, as well as Acting Judge President of Northern Cape High Court and an Acting Judge of the Constitutional Court.

George Bizos SC once wrote an article where he talks about the appointment of judges and he refers to former Chief Justice Ismail Mahomed who listed the qualifications of a good judge - being integrity, energy, motivation, competence, the capacity to give expression to values of the Constitution, and experience, particularly in regard to the values and needs of the community.
These are all characteristics that Judge Bosielo embodied.

In 2014, Judge Bosielo was honoured with UJ Alumni Dignitas Award.
He was involved in many high profile cases, such as the Oscar Pistorius appeal and the murder case of Chanelle Henning. And he delivered the judgment in the Constitutional Court in the judgment of McBride v Minister of Police.

Matters such as the gender transformation of the judiciary and the need to transform traditional courts and indigenous law so that these were consonant with the Constitution were all topics very dear to his heart.
But the one issue that he felt most passionate about was the importance of access to justice.
The concept of access to justice is discussed so frequently that we sometimes forget what it means to people in the street.
Access to justice is not only the ability to get to the building where justice is administered; it is much more than that. It means having faith in a system and believing that your dispute will be fairly resolved. It about believing that one will be heard.  
Judge Bosielo felt strongly that courts were becoming expensive for ordinary people to access, thus nullifying the ideal of making justice accessible to all people.
He wanted the courts and the Constitutional Court, in particular, to be “seen as a symbol of hope for justice for all the people.”
In a lecture at the faculty of law at North West University’s Mafikeng Campus Judge Bosielo commented that with the start of democracy, we were given the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
But, he said, it means nothing to the general public if they cannot enjoy the powers enshrined in both these documents and be shielded by it.
"As law practitioners, we live well-cushioned lives, while the very people we are entrusted to protect are denied reasonable access to a court of law. That must change," Judge Bosielo said.

We have a duty to ensure that we continue Judge Bosielo’s work. We must continue his vision of providing people access to our courts and access to justice.

I want to leave you with a few lines from a poem by Maya Angelou. It reads -
“When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.
…
When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
…

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly….
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.

We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.”

We are better – because of the life of Lebotsang Bosielo.

My sincere condolence to Judge Bosielo’s family - his wife, Shirley and their children - his friends and former colleagues.
May God strengthen and comfort you.

A great tree has fallen.

May he rest in peace.