EARLY LIFE

Judge Thokozile Matilda Masipa, born on the 16 th of October 1947 in Orlando East, Soweto, Johannesburg and is the eldest of 10 children and is married to Makhutla Wilson Masipa and a mother of two children. She is a jurist by profession in the Gauteng Division of the high court of South Africa.

Judge Thokozile Masipha matriculated in 1966 from the Immaculata high school in Alexandra township. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree, specialising in social work in 1974 and a Bachelor of Law in 1990, from the University of South Africa and in 1991 was admitted as an advocate.

HER RISE TO PROMINENCE

Prior to her law career, Thokozile Masipa worked as a social worker as well as a crime reporter for the World Post and the Sowetan newspapers, which led to her interest in law. She was also an editor for the Queen women’s supplement of pace magazine. In 1998, she was appointed as a judge in the Transvaal Provincial Division of the high court of South Africa by President Nelson Mandela, becoming the second black woman to be appointed as a judge in the high court after Lucy Mailula. She has also served in Gauteng’s consumer court tribunal, the Estate Agents Board, and the Electoral Court of South Africa.

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

Judge Masipa is one of the seven female South African judges featured in courting justice; a 2008 documentary film directed by Jane Lipman. She is a dedicated woman, who takes passion in her career. Her colleagues reportedly described her as respected, competent, eloquent, and reserved. In a 2003 interview with the Judicial Service Commission, Judge Masipa supported greater transparency and interaction with the media to aid the public’s understanding of the judicial process. She also contributed to case law on the constitutional duties of local government related to housing in her 2009 ruling on Blue Moonlight Properties vs Occupiers of Saratoga Avenue. Most popular of her feats is that she was the presiding judge of the extremely complex Oscar Pistorius trial of 2014.

Judge Masipa is a hardworking, dedicated individual and inspiration not only to young people but to women as she has achieved great success in a male dominated industry. She is proof that even in adverse circumstances and with an assumedly disadvantaged background anything is possible through diligence, integrity and excellence of character.