New Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development

August 1st, 2013
x
Bookmark

By Nomfundo Manyathi-Jele

John Jeffery (49) has been appointed as the Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development.

Mr Jeffery is a former member of the Justice and Constitutional Development Portfolio Committee in the National Assembly. He holds the BA and LLB degrees as well as a postgraduate diploma in environmental law from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

His first job was as a media trainer at the Midlands Information Centre and Resource Unit in Pietermaritzburg while completing his LLB degree.

In 1988 he was employed as a paralegal at the newly opened Cheadle Thompson & Haysom’s (CTH’s) Pietermaritzburg branch. This branch was opened at the request of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) to look at legal strategies to deal with the political violence at the time.

Mr Jeffery told De Rebus that he was not able to do his articles after graduating because the Transvaal Law Society would not allow him to be articled to Fink Haysom as he was based in the Johannesburg office while Mr Jeffery was based in the Pietermaritzburg one.

His principal in the Pietermaritzburg office had not been practising long enough to officially be allowed to take a candidate attorney and Mr Jeffery was only able to commence articles once his principal had been practising the required number of years.

He thus commenced his articles in 1993 at CTH’s Pietermaritzburg office. These were later transferred to Von Klemperer and Davis in Pietermaritzburg when the CTH office in Pietermaritzburg closed. Mr Jeffery served articles from 1993 to 1995. He was admitted as an attorney in December 1995.

Mr Jeffery was a member of the KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature from 1994 to 1999. He chaired the Environment and Conservation Portfolio Committee and was also a member of the Economic Affairs and the Safety and Security Portfolio Committee. He also led the African National Congress component of the Constitutional Committee in the provincial legislature, which was tasked with drafting a provincial constitution for KwaZulu-Natal.

Mr Jeffery has been a member of the National Assembly of Parliament since 1999 and also served on the Joint Rules and Rules Committees; the National Assembly Programming Committee and the Chief Whips Forum until his recent appointment.

Mr Jeffery is replacing former Deputy Minister Andries Nel who is now the Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. The new Ministers were sworn in on 10 July.

Nomfundo Manyathi-Jele, nomfundo@derebus.org.za

This article was first published in De Rebus in 2013 (Aug) DR 7.

X
De Rebus