Barend van Niekerk [SEP] date of birth
Barend van Niekerk
Professor Barend van Niekerk (born Pietermaritzburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, 1939; died Bolivia 1981) was an South African acclaimed jurist, a campaigning legal academic and a prominent human rights and anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1970s and early 1980s. This "maverick law professor" was prosecuted twice (and convicted once) by the South African state prosecutor and privately sued once, all such actions being based on his supposed contempt of court. He was indeed a fearless critic
QC, Australian judge David Ipp and Kwa-Zulu Natal's premier, Sibusiso Ndebele.
Barend van Niekerk died of heart failure while travelling at altitude in Bolivia in 1981. He was survived by his wife and two daughters, both as linguistically earthy. The University of Kwa-Zulu Natal gives an annual Barend Van Niekerk Prize for the most outstanding Jurisprudence law student.
At van Niekerk's funeral service, Alan Paton, who gave the eulogy, noted that the form of blessing used "asks God to give Barend