Pretoria – President Cyril Ramaphosa has offered his deep condolences to the family and former colleagues of former Judge Willem Heath who passed away at the age of 79.
Judge Heath, a graduate of the University of Pretoria, served as a prosecutor in the early years of his career before practising as an advocate and later becoming a judge of the High Court.
From 1995 to 1997 he chaired a Commission of Inquiry into corruption, fraud and maladministration in the Eastern Cape.
One of the outcomes of the Commission was the establishment by President Nelson Mandela of the Special Investigating Unit as an independent agency of government that investigates corruption and maladministration in state institutions.
President Mandela appointed Judge Heath, who had played an instrumental role in drafting the Special Investigating Unit and Special Tribunals Act, as the first head of the unit.
President Ramaphosa said: “Judge Willem Heath will be remembered as an early architect of government’s anti-corruption architecture and a pioneer in the efforts, early in the life of our democracy, to rid the state and society of corruption and maladministration. May his soul rest in peace.”
