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Leonora van den Heever (born 9 July 1926) is a former judge of the High Court of South Africa. She is South Africa's first female judge and the first woman to be appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa.

Early life and education

Van den Heever was born in Windhoek, the daughter of Toon van den Heever and Margaretha van den Heever (née Rautenbach). She attended the C&N Sekondêre Meisieskool Oranje in Bloemfontein, after which she completed her tertiary studies at the University of Pretoria, where she obtained, cum laude, her BA degree in English and Latin followed by a MA degree, cum laude, in English. She then taught at the Normaalkollege in Bloemfontein but, persuaded by her father, she temporarily started working as a judges registrar and also began her LLB part-time through the University of the Orange Free State, graduating in 1951.

Career

Van den Heever started practicing as an advocate at the Bloemfontein Bar in 1952 and in 1968 she became a senior advocate. In 1969 she was appointed a judge in the Northern Cape Division, thus becoming the first female judge in South Africa. In 1979 she began to serve on the Bench of the Cape Provincial Division and from time to time during 1982 to 1985, she was part of the Bophuthatswana Court of Appeal.

In 1991 she became the first female judge to be appointed permanently to the appellate division of the South African Supreme Court in Bloemfontein where she served until she retired. After retiring at age 70, she agreed to some work in the Cape Provincial Division and served for a number of years on the Appeal Benches of Lesotho and Swaziland.

Other interests

Van den Heever continued her love of literature, by writing two published children's books, as well as writing short stories under a pseudonym, for Sarie Magazine. She also acted as a trustee of the Ballet Benevolent Fund for CAPAB and as a board member of the SA Youth Orchestra and was also chairperson of the SA Library board.

Honours and awards

Van den Heever received the Chancellor's Medal from the University of Pretoria in 1996, an honorary LLD from the University of Stellenbosch in 1997 and in 1987 the Women's Bureau Achievement Award.

See also

• List of first women lawyers and judges in Africa

References

1. ^ "Leonora van den Heever Papers". AtoM@UCT.
2. ^ "Signing of the Civic Honours Book" (PDF). City of Cape Town. p. 13.
3. Riding, Alan (31 March 2022). "The Paris Opera's Next Season". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
4. ^ Southwood, M. D. (1988). "Fathers and their children on our Bench" (PDF). Advocate. General Council of the Bar of South Africa: 21–27.
5. "Vroue-advokaat – amper 'n halfeeu gelede [Female Advocate – almost half a century ago]" (PDF). Advocate. General Council of the Bar of South Africa: 33–35. 1999.

• 1926 births
• Living people
• 20th-century South African judges
• South African women judges
• 20th-century women judges
• University of Pretoria alumni
• University of the Free State alumni
• People from Windhoek
• White South African people