Johannesburg - Opposition parties and legal eagles were united in hailing the announcement by President Jacob Zuma that retired judge Ian Farlam would lead the commission of inquiry into the Marikana massacre.
Advocates Bantubonke Tokota SC and Pingla Hemraj SC would also serve on the commission, Zuma said.
- Judge Farlam joined the Department of Justice in 1961 as a public prosecutor.
He was admitted to the Cape Bar in 1968.
Other highlights include being an acting judge in the Orange Free State Provincial Division for a term (1998), before acting for several terms as a judge in the Cape Provincial Division until he received a permanent appointment.
In 1993, he was permanently appointed as judge in the Cape Provincial Division.
In 2000, he was permanently appointed to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
He appeared in a number of cases in South West Africa (Namibia) before it became independent.
He is a patron of the Centre for Constitutional Rights; and in 2010 headed the Copyright Review Commission.
- Tokota has served as an acting judge in the Eastern Cape Labour Court, Mthatha High Court and the Transvaal Provincial Division. He graduated from Fort Hare in 1979.
In 2007, he represented Pretoria High Court Judge Nkola Motata, who was found guilty of drunk driving in September 2009.
- Hemraj has served as an acting judge in the Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown high courts, and this month she was honoured for her work by the Durban Chamber of Commerce.
She was admitted as an advocate in 1980. In 2000 she was appointed an SC.
In 2010, she acted as the defence advocate in a case involving one of Zuma’s bodyguards, who was acquitted in the case.
The Star