A tribute to Justice Jan Hendrik Steyn (1928 - 2013)

• Pages: 201-204
• Author: D.G. Scott
• Published date: 01 January 2013
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC177228
• Date: 01 January 2013

A Tribute to Justice Jan Hendrik Steyn

(1928 – 2013)

Delivered at the Opening of the Lesotho Court of Appeal

First Session – 2014

By Justice D G Scott AP

It is fitting to open this session of the Court of Appeal with a tribute

to the late Justice Jan Hendrik Steyn who died in Cape Town on 30

December 2013. Justice Steyn was a member of this Court for some

18 years. He was its President from 1997 to 2008 when he retired at

the age of 80. On that occasion he was honoured in this Kingdom by

being awarded the prestigious Order of Mohlomi: Commander.

This was the pinnacle in a career of a most remarkable man. He

studied law at the University of Stellenbosch and obtained the

degrees of BA and LLB in 1949. He joined the Cape Bar in 1950 and

by 1963 his practice was sufficiently established to enable him to

take on senior status, the equivalent of King’s Counsel in this

Kingdom.

The following year, 1964, at the relatively young age of 36 he was

appointed a judge of the Cape of Good Hope Provincial Division of

the Supreme Court of South Africa (now the Western Cape High

Court).

Justice Steyn’s mother, Zerilda Steyn, was awarded an honorary

doctorate in recognition of her contribution to the improvement in

the lives of the poor and disadvantaged. It was, no doubt, from her

that Justice Steyn inherited the social conscience that was to be the

hallmark of his career. As a young judge he became chairman of

NICRO (The National Institute for Criminology and the

Rehabilitation of Offenders). He was also instrumental in founding

the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cape Town.