On a path that also took him through the Labour Appeal Court and Constitutional Court, Jappie remained unshowy and 'down to earth', remembered for being serious in argument and exacting about preparation, but not without humour.

Achmat Jappie (70), retired judge president of the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, who became known for his unobtrusive authority, institutional candour and role in holding fellow judges to account, died in a Durban hospital on 22 April 2026 after a short illness.

For nearly three decades on the Bench Jappie was a stabilising presence, a judge whose labour was built through work that was careful, unshowy and exact. In a judiciary sometimes pulled into public noise, he seemed to prefer the margins to the centre. He spoke from the bench in a zen-like manner, expected precision from those who appeared before him, and had little patience for performance disguised as argument. A case, for him, was not a stage.

He came to the Bench in 1998, at a moment when the legal order was still learning its post-apartheid shape. Contemporaries describe him as wary of easy legal certainty, and alert to the way doctrine could harden into injustice when applied without reflection.

His path took him through the Labour Appeal Court, where he developed a reputation for clear reasoning in disputes that often turned on technical detail, and later to acting appointments in the Constitutional Court in 2015. Even there he...