'One of the best New Year's presents ever."
This is how leading HIV/Aids activist Zackie Achmat described the appointment of HIV-positive Judge Edwin Cameron to South Africa's highest court.
Nearly a decade after then deputy president Thabo Mbeki blocked Judge Cameron from being appointed to the Constitutional Court, President Kgalema Motlanthe gave the vocal Aids activist judge the post on New Year's Eve.
Speaking to The Star on Thursday, Achmat said he believed that Mbeki's controversial sidelining of Judge Cameron was "one of the best things that could have happened... although we didn't think so at the time".
| 'I think this is one of the most important events in his life' |
His appointment "comes at a time when the Constitutional Court needs judges who will continue its legacy of independence and rigour", Achmat said.
While Judge Cameron was unavailable for comment on his appointment, Achmat said he had spoken to the judge about his new job.
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"I think this is one of the most important events in his life."
The road to the Constitutional Court wasn't an easy one for Judge Cameron, who was grilled by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) about his Aids activism when he was interviewed.
The judge was also the subject of a scathing 22-page submission by former pension funds adjudicator Vuyani Ngalwana, who argued that certain of his rulings on rape sentencing had been soft.
| Judge Cameron was unavailable for comment on his appointment |
He also took issue with Judge Cameron's "public address on the issue of HIV/Aids".
Praised by Nelson Mandela as "one of South Africa's new heroes", Judge Cameron was the first judge to disclose that he was HIV-positive.
In an interview with the BBC, he explained that he was inspired to speak out by the death of Gugu Dlamini, who was stoned and stabbed to death three weeks after she had admitted on isi-Zulu-language radio that she was HIV-positive.
"I thought that if this woman, without any protection, living in a township, not behind a palisade like I do in my middle-class suburb in Joburg, not with the income of a judge, not with the constitutional protection... I thought that I should speak out," he said.
According to Ngalwana, however, appointing Judge Cameron would be a "grave mistake... at this stage".
His complaints evidently did nothing to sway the JSC, which unanimously recommended that Judge Cameron be appointed.
- This article was originally published on page 5 of The Star on January 02, 2009
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