CONSTITUTIONAL Court Judge Thembile Skweyiya’s life was a "guiding light", said General Council of the Bar chairman Ishmael Semenya SC on Tuesday.The special sitting to bid farewell to Judge Skweyiya, who retired at the end of April, had an end-of-an-era feel to it. He was the last of his generation of lawyers still on the Constitutional Court bench — contemporaries Arthur Chaskalson, Pius Langa, Tholie Madala, Zak Yacoob and Albie Sachs all having gone before.Alongside these peers and with some of the younger judges still on the Constitutional Court bench — like Judges Edwin Cameron and Dikgang Moseneke — Judge Skweyiya was in the 1980s a go-to lawyer for those who fell foul of apartheid’s laws.At the special sitting, the generation of lawyers that followed described how he inspired them, offering a rare glimpse into the worlds of black and human-rights lawyers during apartheid days.These included Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, Mr Semenya, Advocates for Transformation president Dum...
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