After decades of service, Judge Frank Kroon removed his court robes for the last time and stepped down from the bench. On 31 July, Kroon’s final day in court, Eastern Cape advocates and attorneys paid tribute to him during a special court session in his honour, calling him a leader, a teacher and a gentleman.
After decades of service, Judge Frank Kroon removed his court robes for the last time and stepped down from the bench. On 31 July, Kroon’s final day in court, Eastern Cape advocates and attorneys paid tribute to him during a special court session in his honour, calling him a leader, a teacher and a gentleman.
These attributes were confirmed when Kroon spoke passionately about his career and lovingly about family. Sitting in his living room cum study, filled with a variety books and photographs of his family, his greyish blue eyes sparkled as he talked about his grandchildren and took a moment to look at the silver frames filled with their laughing faces.
When he spoke, his voice was soft and polite, but his smart suit and tie brought forth a presence that demanded respect.
Kroon’s milestone
One of the cases for which Kroon will be long remembered is the particularly brave judgment he delivered in a matter heard in 1986, when the National Party government had declared a state of emergency.
Emergency regulations gave police far-reaching powers to act against citizens on the flimsiest of excuses, and they could hold detainees indefinitely. The country was in turmoil. The government restricted political funerals, imposed curfews, and banned certain indoor gatherings.
Against this background, Father Graham Cornelius allowed his church to be used for a service marking the 10th anniversary of the 1976 school uprisings in Soweto.
However, police intervened before the service could take place and detained Cornelius. Responding to the detention of one of his priests, the Catholic bishop of Port Elizabeth brought an urgent application for the release of Cornelius and the matter was heard by Kroon.
He stunned the legal community by declaring that the detention of Cornelius was unlawful and ordering his release. The judge’s decision, widely hailed as a human rights victory, was later reversed by the Appellate Division, at that time the highest court in South Africa. Recalling the case, Kroon remembers it was highly contested.
However, despite the appeal decision, he still considers his judgment both legally and morally correct.
It is Kroon’s commitment to justice, seen in this case, that advocates single out. Commenting on his contribution during 28 years of service on the bench they speak about his understanding of what is required in a judge, as well as his concept of justice. Kroon himself says he would define justice as the “fairness between man and man”, adding that it is “what is right and just between the two opposing litigants”.
Complementing Kroon
Advocate Gerald Bloem said Kroon was known for his “insatiable appetite for work”, adding that “a lot of reading and other preparation went into the matter before he [Kroon] set foot in court.”
Kroon presided over the longest-lasting case in the Eastern Cape (Twani v Premier, Eastern Cape), which ran over 40 weeks.
Bloem remembered that Kroon produced an 85-page judgment on an application at the end of the plaintiff’s case, and a 165-page judgment at the conclusion of the entire trial.
A former pupil of Kroon, Advocate Chris Mouton, says: “No matter how long or complex the trial, he [Kroon] would keep up with the evidence and the law and deliver carefully crafted judgments expeditiously.”
Life in the law
Speaking about his career, he says a lot of research had to be done before every case, but that he enjoyed the intellectual challenges of being a judge. Kroon says a judge should always be courteous towards everyone in court, "whether it is counsel, witnesses or media representatives”. This was emphasised by Mouton, who remembers that Kroon always engaged with counsel in “courteous, rational debate”.
During the 1990s Kroon also participated in training programmes for junior advocates run by the Eastern Cape Bar in Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth, and which are still functioning today. He prepared papers about the operation of motion court and about opening and closing arguments and these were used by senior advocates who ran the programmes.
Over the years Kroon also assisted in moot courts, where pupil advocates are given matters to prepare and argue. He says if asked he will be happy to do it again.
From 1983 Kroon sat as acting judge of the Natal and Eastern Cape high courts until he was appointed permanent judge of the Eastern Cape High Court in 1985, where he served until his retirement.
Additionally, Kroon sat as part-time judge of the Labour Appeal Court and as acting judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court.
Future plans
Asked how he plans to use his time now, Kroon thinks for a few minutes. Then he says he hopes to keep himself busy with something intellectually challenging like arbitrations (a non-court process where, by agreement between all the parties a senior lawyer – rather than a judge – will preside over and settle a dispute).
He would also like to sit as an appeal judge in the courts of neighbouring countries such as Swaziland, Lesotho and Botswana. But he says he also hopes to have more time for his hobbies.
He says he didn’t have a lot of time to do recreational reading in the past and now hopes to do more. He also enjoys golf – but he laughs and says he is not very good at it.
