Sir Andries Stockenström
Andries Stockenstrom
Andries Stockenström was born in Graaff-Reinet on the 22 April 1844 and died on 22 March 1880 in Swellendam. He was a judge and the second son of Sir Andries Stockenström (6.7.1792-15.3.1864) and his wife, Elsabe Helena Maasdorp.
Stockenström was a brilliant student who continued his legal education in England and Germany. On 17.11.1865 he was called to the English Bar by the Middle Temple and on 20.3.1866 was admitted as an advocate in Cape Town where he began his professional work but, soon moving to Grahamstown, built up an extensive practice in the Eastern Districts court. On 10.9.1875 he was selected by the British High Commissioner, Sir Henry Barkly, to act as a judge in the Griqualand West Land Court which had been established by Ordinance 3 of 1875 not to arbitrate on, or in any way re-open, the question of the political boundaries of Griqualand West, but to decide on questions of land title within the area annexed by Britain in 1871.
He had a brilliant reputation at the Bar, a profound knowledge of Roman Dutch Law and was fluent in Dutch as well as English. Controversy nevertheless surrounded his appointment, the belief being that he was prejudiced against D. Arnot, the Griqua agent, and sympathetic towards President J.H. Brand of the Orange Free State. There is no evidence however that these sentiments, if held, determined his decisions. He worked with tremendous application applying the legal concept of sovereignty and the law of property to a situation too complex in its political and socio-economic ramifications to be resolved thereby. In his celebrated pronouncement in the Land Court, he argued that ‘the chiefs in that area were chiefs over tribes, not territories. Like all chiefs of nomadic tribes they exercised personal jurisdiction over their followers but territorial jurisdiction was to them a thing unknown’.
From denial of territorial jurisdiction followed denial of the validity of many of the titles issued by Nicolaas Waterboer, Cornelis Kok and others, and the sweeping claims advanced by their agents. Where Orange Free State titles issued after 1854 confirmed earlier titles issued in the name of a chief, these were accepted on grounds of continuous occupation. Otherwise the Griqua claims and those of their ambitious White agents were in many instances brushed aside. One immediate consequence of the decision was not altogether unexpected. Denial of Waterboer’s sovereignty outside Griquatown and Albania validated the Orange Free State’s claims to the dry diggings, but President Brand waived this in return for £90 000. Though subsequent adjustments within Griqualand West were made by Sir Charles Warren, the indirect consequences of S.’s decision foreshadowed the end of a West Griqua homeland and laid the foundations of unrest for the Griqua rebellion (1876-78).
Stockenström had worked under great strain at high pressure and was subjected thereafter to bitter criticism. To ease his distress Sir Bartle Frere, who had succeeded Barkly, agreed to support his plea for a full Royal Commission of Enquiry into his conduct. To his chagrin Britain refused on grounds of ‘Mr. Stockenström’s high reputation for the conscientious discharge of his official duties’. There was absolute confidence in his integrity.
He inherited his father’s interest in politics and contested the Grahamstown parliamentary seat in 1876. Though he lost to Richard Southey his advancement in other spheres was deservedly rapid – he was appointed Attorney General (22.8.1877-5.2.1878), elected MLA for Albert (1878-79), and reappointed judge in 1879.
Indications are that like Chief Justice J.H. de Villiers, who had known him since boyhood, he took his stand on the rule of law. He concurred with De Villiers in the well-known case of T. Upington, then Attorney General, versus Saul Solomon and Co., proprietor of The Cape Argus, and F.J. Dormer the editor.
In two vigorous articles on the Koegas affair (1879) The Cape Argus had censured Upington for declining to transfer the trial of the accused to Cape Town in order to remove the case from local pressures. De Villiers, with S. concurring, ruled that the first article was fair comment; the second was admitted to be defamatory but only nominal damages were imposed. The decision was regarded as a blow struck for justice as well as for the freedom of the press.
In 1880, despite ill health, S. went on his first and only Circuit, during which he died on his thirty-sixth birthday. Most major newspapers carried an obituary notice; that of The Cape Argus was a moving tribute to the judge and to the personality and abilities of a great man cut off in his prime. In the words of Lord De Villiers, Stockenström’s outstanding qualities were ‘fearless honesty and a thorough devotion to duty’. He was keenly interested in the volunteer movement and had, shortly before his death, devoted himself to the resuscitation of the Volunteer Cavalry troop (in Cape Town) of which he was a captain.
On 24.12.1867 S. married Maria Henrietta Hartzenberg of Graaff-Reinet. They had one son: Andries (1868-1922), who followed his father into the legal profession, and became the third baronet in 1912.
Source and acknowledgements Standard Encylopeadia of South Africa. Nasou Via Afrika