Damaseb and Van Niekerk made permanent judges

THE High Court of Namibia welcomed two new permanently-appointed Judges into its ranks this week – Judge Petrus Damaseb and Judge Kato van Niekerk.

On the recommendation of the Judicial Service Commission President Sam Nujoma appointed the two as permanent Judges of the High Court – posts which they will be legally entitled to hold until they reach the age of 65 – on Monday, it was announced from the chambers of the Chief Justice yesterday. Judge Van Niekerk is only the second woman ever to be appointed to Namibia’s High Court bench in a permanent capacity.The first and previously only other female Judge on the bench is Judge Mavis Gibson, who has been a permanent Judge in Namibia, having previously also served on the Zimbabwe High Court bench, since December 1995.Judge Damaseb too is helping make legal history, as he is only the second legal practitioner who is not a member of the Society of Advocates of Namibia to be appointed to the High Court bench in a permanent capacity.The court also has three former Magistrates on its bench at this stage.With Damaseb’s appointment the High Court’s gain will once again be the loss of Windhoek law firm Conradie & Damaseb, which Damaseb was attached to since 1996.The same firm, then called Karuaihe and Conradie, lost one of its partners, the late Judge Fonnie Karuaihe, to the High Court in 1998, when Karuaihe became the first former attorney – as opposed to advocate – to be appointed as a permanent Judge in Namibia.Both new Judges had been serving on the bench as Acting Judges since the beginning of February.Judge Damaseb also served a three-month term as an Acting Judge last year.The new Judge Damaseb, who was born in Tsumeb, served in a series of high-level posts in Government before he joined the then Karuaihe & Conradie to pursue a career in law.From 1990 to 1993 he was the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister; from 1993 to 1994 he was Acting Secretary to Cabinet; during 1994 he served as Secretary to Cabinet and Joint Chief Executive Officer of the Joint Administrative Authority for Walvis Bay in the countdown to the harbour town’s reintegration into Namibia; and from 1994 to 1996 he served as Secretary to the President.He obtained an LL.B. (Hons) degree from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom in 1988, after he had also done a three-year Magistrate’s course in Zambia and another three-year course in development studies and management at the United Nations Institute for Namibia, also in Zambia.Judge Van Niekerk was born in Windhoek, where she also completed her schooling before going on to obtain B.A. LL.B. degrees at the University of Cape Town between 1973 and 1977.Much of her legal career has been spent in the field of criminal law.After graduating, her working career started in Cape Town, where she took up a post as a Public Prosecutor, before being transferred back to Namibia in 1978.She then worked as a Public Prosecutor at the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court for a year – here her path also crossed with that of a young Gerhard Maritz, now also a High Court Judge, who was also working as a prosecutor at that stage, she remembers – before becoming a State Advocate in the office the the then Attorney General (the forerunner of the Office of the Prosecutor General).During the 1980s she worked in the pre-Independence Justice Ministry as a legal advisor and drafter and at Tsumeb as a senior Public Prosecutor before she joined the then Attorney General’s office again, where she ended up being appointed as Deputy Attorney General.Following Independence she continued to hold a post as Deputy Prosecutor General, until resigning in 1996 to do a pupillage at the Bar and start practising as an Advocate from 1997.Judge Van Niekerk is only the second woman ever to be appointed to Namibia’s High Court bench in a permanent capacity.The first and previously only other female Judge on the bench is Judge Mavis Gibson, who has been a permanent Judge in Namibia, having previously also served on the Zimbabwe High Court bench, since December 1995.Judge Damaseb too is helping make legal history, as he is only the second legal practitioner who is not a member of the Society of Advocates of Namibia to be appointed to the High Court bench in a permanent capacity.The court also has three former Magistrates on its bench at this stage.With Damaseb’s appointment the High Court’s gain will once again be the loss of Windhoek law firm Conradie & Damaseb, which Damaseb was attached to since 1996.The same firm, then called Karuaihe and Conradie, lost one of its partners, the late Judge Fonnie Karuaihe, to the High Court in 1998, when Karuaihe became the first former attorney – as opposed to advocate – to be appointed as a permanent Judge in Namibia.Both new Judges had been serving on the bench as Acting Judges since the beginning of February.Judge Damaseb also served a three-month term as an Acting Judge last year.The new Judge Damaseb, who was born in Tsumeb, served in a series of high-level posts in Government before he joined the then Karuaihe & Conradie to pursue a career in law.From 1990 to 1993 he was the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister; from 1993 to 1994 he was Acting Secretary to Cabinet; during 1994 he served as Secretary to Cabinet and Joint Chief Executive Officer of the Joint Administrative Authority for Walvis Bay in the countdown to the harbour town’s reintegration into Namibia; and from 1994 to 1996 he served as Secretary to the President.He obtained an LL.B. (Hons) degree from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom in 1988, after he had also done a three-year Magistrate’s course in Zambia and another three-year course in development studies and management at the United Nations Institute for Namibia, also in Zambia.Judge Van Niekerk was born in Windhoek, where she also completed her schooling before going on to obtain B.A. LL.B. degrees at the University of Cape Town between 1973 and 1977.Much of her legal career has been spent in the field of criminal law.After graduating, her working career started in Cape Town, where she took up a post as a Public Prosecutor, before being transferred back to Namibia in 1978.She then worked as a Public Prosecutor at the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court for a year – here her path also crossed with that of a young Gerhard Maritz, now also a High Court Judge, who was also working as a prosecutor at that stage, she remembers – before becoming a State Advocate in the office the the then Attorney General (the forerunner of the Office of the Prosecutor General).During the 1980s she worked in the pre-Independence Justice Ministry as a legal advisor and drafter and at Tsumeb as a senior Public Prosecutor before she joined the then Attorney General’s office again, where she ended up being appointed as Deputy Attorney General.Following Independence she continued to hold a post as Deputy Prosecutor General, until resigning in 1996 to do a pupillage at the Bar and start practising as an Advocate from 1997.