Indian-origin Narendran ‘Jodi’ Kolapen has been appointed to the Constitutional Court, the highest judicial bench in South Africa.
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday announced the appointment of 64-year-old Kolapen and Ramamaka Steven Mathopo as the latest additions to the Constitutional Court after a lengthy process of public interviews.
Kolapen and Mathopo are among five candidates who were recommended for Ramaphosa for two vacancies in October this year.
Both will assume office from January 1, 2022.
Kolappan was interviewed twice for appointment to the Constitutional Court, but failed despite serving two terms as an acting judge of the same institution.
The Presidency noted that Kolapen and Mathopo have had illustrious careers in the legal profession and in the judiciary.
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Kolappan, who has now been removed as a High Court judge, began legal practice in 1982, largely focused on works of public interest. He joined Lawyers for Human Rights in 1993 and became its national director in 1995, a position he held until the end of 1996.
In 1997, he assumed a position as commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission and served as the commission’s chairman for seven years, from 2002 to 2009. He was appointed as the chairman of the South African Law Reform Commission in April. 2016.
Collapen serves in the structures of several NGOs and community-based organizations, including the Legal Resource Center, the Foundation for Human Rights, and Lodium Care Services for the Aged.
He has also been invited to speak on human rights issues around the world, including at the United Nations and Harvard University.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Durban University of Technology; Award of the Turquoise Harmony Institute for their contribution to society in the field of law and human rights; and the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Congress of Business and Economics, which originated from the then Transvaal Indian Congress from the days when Mahatma Gandhi was in South Africa.
In 2010, in the position of Acting Judge of the Constitutional Court, Kolapen made a strong statement about cultural and national identity as a keynote speaker at the 50th anniversary celebration of the religious organization Shiva Gyan Sabha in Lenasia.
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Kolapen said there is no need to shy away from the uniquely Indian identity, culture and religion first brought to South Africa by indentured laborers 150 years ago, but as South African citizens of Indian origin to help build the rainbow nation . should be used. country’s
Colappan’s mother was among the women in a historic protest march in 1956 for the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the seat of the apartheid-era government, to protest discriminatory laws. He was twice arrested and imprisoned for his participation in passive resistance protests.
Kolappan often recalled how his mother had told him that she was pregnant with him at the time.