OBITUARY
PASSING OF A GREAT SOUTH AFICAN
LOURENS WEPENER HUGO (“LAURIE”) ACKERMANN
On Saturday 8 June 2024, I attended the annual dinner of the PBHS Old Boys Association, not as an old boy, but as a past Chairman of the Governing Body and Life Vice Chairman of the Association. One of the absent friends was referred to as Professor Laurie Ackermann. He was in fact Mr Justice LWH (“Laurie”) Ackermann who was, for the last 11 years of his judicial career, an outstanding Justice of the Constitutional Court. Since he was one of the most impressive and distinguished PBHS old boys that it has been my privilege to know for more than 50 years, I thought that it would be fitting to record as briefly as possible his PBHS background, academic and judicial achievements, his contribution to the development of our Constitutional law and our law generally and the personal qualities that made him the man that he was.
On Saturday 24 May 2024 Laurie Ackermann passed away peacefully after a long illness. He matriculated from PBHS in 1950 and he went on to have a long, successful and distinguished career as academic, advocate and Judge. He was one of the first five judicial appointees to the Constitutional Court in 1994 and he served as a Justice of the Court for 11 years during which he made a profound and lasting contribution to the development of a new jurisprudence based on human rights.
On 14 January 1934 Laurie was born into an Afrikaans-speaking family in Pretoria but like many others who attend PBHS he was brought up conversant in English and Afrikaans. He first attended Laerskool Pretoria Oos and then PBHS where, in 1950, he was the Head Prefect of the school and a member of the first rugby and cricket teams. After matriculating he went to Stellenbosch University to study law. In 1953 he completed his first degree (BA (Law)) cum laude and in 1954 he won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford university. He came down from Oxford with a BA (Hons) in Jurisprudence. and continued his studies at Stellenbosch for an LLB degree, which he completed in 1957.
After a short stint as a Judge’s clerk for Judge Faure Williamson he joined the Pretoria Bar in 1958. He practised as an advocate at the Pretoria Bar from then until he was appointed a judge in the Transvaal Supreme Court (now High Court). He was granted senior status in 1975 and was appointed a judge in 1980. While he was at the Bar, he served on the Pretoria Bar Council and the General Council of the Bar of South Africa. From the outset it was obvious that he had a profound knowledge of the law and a very incisive and analytical mind and he delivered many careful, thoughtful and well-reasoned judgments that have stood the test of time. It was clear that he was destined for greater things.
While he served on the Supreme Court in Transvaal Laurie was the Chairman of the Governing Body of PBHS and he was the national vice-president of the National Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Rehabilitation of Offenders
During his time in the Transvaal Supreme Court Laurie often was required to apply apartheid legislation which he considered both unfair and inhumane but which the Courts were obliged to apply because of parliamentary sovereignty. He found himself opposed to this legislation, so much so that, in 1987 he requested the State President, PW Botha, to allow him to take early retirement. After his request was refused, he resigned from the Bench. This meant that he left the Bench without any benefits. He then became professor in human rights law as the occupant of the newly-established Harry Oppenheimer Chair of Human Rights at Stellenbosch where he lectured on the subject. He occupied this position for five years.
While he was at Stellenbosch he was a visiting scholar at the Columbia Law School in New York and at the Max Planck’s Institute for Comparative Public Law in Heidelberg. He also was a member of the Lesotho Court of Appeal and he served on the Namibian Supreme Court.
In January 1993 Laurie was re-appointed a judge in the Supreme Court, this time in the Cape of Good Hope Provincial Division, and in April 1994 he was the chairman of the Cape Electoral Appeal Tribunal.
He was appointed to the Constitutional Court in August 1994.
It is not possible to provide more than a brief summary of his other activities, most of which were time-consuming.
From 1988 to 2003 Laurie was the South African secretary of the Rhodes Trust which awards South African scholarships. He spoke at universities in South Africa and abroad on constitutional law and he had a particular interest in fundamental rights under the Constitution, especially the role of dignity in constitutional jurisprudence. Laurie played an important role in the development of the Constitutional Court’s early jurisprudence, particularly in respect of dignity and its relationship to equality and non-discrimination. After his retirement he completed a seminal work on this aspect of the Constitution entitled Human Dignity: Lodestar for Equality in South Africa which was published in 2012. As far as I am aware this work is regarded with some reverence by academics and practitioners alike.
For all his work Laurie was awarded an honorary LLD by Stellenbosch University and he was made an honorary fellow of Worcester College, his old Oxford college.
In his formal garb Laurie appeared stern an unrelenting but even on the Bench he showed that he had a good sense of humour, usually wryly expressed. He was serious about his work and his responsibilities and he did not spare himself in his approach. He worked very hard and expected others to do the same. He always wanted to get to the heart of a dispute and resolve it correctly, properly and fairly. He was stern with practitioners who did not show the same kind of diligence. He always listened carefully and was always courteous and polite to practitioners but did not suffer foolish arguments – or practitioners gladly.
Laurie was always prepared to mentor people that he thought had promise – especially the disadvantaged. He was much loved by those that he mentored. Not only did he share his knowledge and experience but they knew that he really cared about their progress and improvement. In a word, he was authentic. He was never insincere and he never was condescending.
Laurie loved good conversation, good company, good food and last, but definitely not least, he loved good wine. As a friend, you always felt that you could rely on him absolutely. He loved to fish and did so when he could and to exercise by walking while he was able.
To an outsider like me, who never attended PBHS but has had many opportunities to observe boys at the school and deal with products of the school in the professions and in business, Laurie seemed to me to be the embodiment of all the virtues and values that the school attempted to instil and still attempts to instil in the boys. He lived by at least two important principles. One was the principle of service. He would contribute what he could whenever he could. The other was no matter how intelligent you may be you still need to work hard. PBHS can be proud of him. I suspect, like I do, they will regard him as a great South African.
Finally, it must be said that despite all these achievements and accolades Laurie was always humble and never showed a trace of hubris.
Laurie married Denise du Toit and they had three children. He is survived by Denise the three children and five grandchildren.
Written by Judge Brian Southwood
