Zak Yacoob

Zak Yacoob (born 3 March 1948, in Durban) is a South African judge who served as a Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from his appointment by Nelson Mandela in February 1998 until January 2013, briefly acting as Deputy Chief Justice in 2012. Admitted as an advocate in 1973 and made Senior Counsel in 1991, he practiced criminal and public law and represented political prisoners during apartheid. Blind since infancy due to meningitis, he has been an active disability rights advocate, and his handwriting is said to have inspired the Constitutional Court official font. He drafted the landmark 2000 judgment in Government v Grootboom, which established the justiciability of socioeconomic rights, and wrote the majority judgment in the 2012 case Democratic Alliance v President, overturning an executive appointment. After retiring from the bench he led inquiries into prosecutorial misconduct, headed an international tribunal on Indonesia 1965 mass killings, and chaired South Africa People Tribunal on Economic Crimes. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/