Capacity: Advocate
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Coloured
Date of Birth: October 1963
Qualifications: BA Law (1985) LLB (1987) (UWC), LLM (1990) Ph.D (Criminal Justice) (2009) (UCT)
Key Judgments:
- Sishen Iron Ore Company (Pty) Ltd v Mokotedi (2580/18) [2021] ZANCHC 55 (29 October 2021)
- Minister of Correctional Services v Anthony Ozukalu (299/21) [2021] ZANCHC 50 (15 October 2021)
- Frederick Lodewikus Van Der Merwe v Frankel Engelbrecht [2022] ZANCHC 34 (3 August 2022)
- S v Assegai [2023] ZANCHC 2 (20 January 2023)
Candidate Biography (Updated September 2024):
Advocate Jacobus Moses is an admitted advocate of the High Court of South Africa, having been admitted as such in 1991, and having taken up chambers at the Cape bar in 1995. Prior to practicing as an advocate Moses worked as a prosecutor from 1988 to 1995, after qualifying from UWC with his BA Law (1985) and LLB (1987). He also acted as a regional magistrate in the Kuilsriver Regional Magistrates’ Court
Advocate Moses is an active member of the Kurdish Human Rights Action Group (KHRAG) in Cape Town, having served as its Vice Chairperson for 2 consecutive terms between 2010 and 2011. Further, he drafted the first constitution of KHRAG. He has served as a member of the Rules Board for the High Court of South Africa. He is also a member of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADEL). He is also an accredited arbitrator and mediator.
His involvement with NADEL and KHRAG saw Advocate Moses visit Turkey during 2005 as part of the International Delegation of Human Rights Lawyers, during which visit he authored the first report and recommendation of the Delegation on the Kurdish Question in Turkey. He was also tasked on a separate occasion with preparing a statement of international solidarity and condemnation regarding the conviction and sentence imposed by a Turkish Court in Diyabakir on Leyla Zana, an internationally renowned Kurdish politician and spokesperson in July 2009.
His unwavering commitment to human rights and social justice stemmed largely from having experienced the abuses perpetrated against the black majority by the Apartheid regime while growing up in Oudtshoorn, and this was honed during his formative years as a law student at UWC during the mid-1980s.
Advocate Moses has served two as an acting judge, in the Western Cape Division of the High Court for approximately 4 terms in 2011, and in the Northern Cape Division of the High Court from April 2021 to November 2021. He has appeared as counsel in the High Court, SCA, Labour Appeal Court, Competition Appeal Court, and Constitutional Court. However, and most pertinently, he has not received an instruction from big law firm nor from the State Attorney’s office in the past 5 years to appear in any of these courts.
It will thus be interesting to see whether the JSC overlooks Moses’ sparse record of reported judgments and the fact that he was not appeared as counsel in any superior court in the past 5 years, having resigned from the Cape Bar in 2021, in light of his more than 34 years’ legal experience.
October 2024 Interview:
