Profile of judge in Pistorius trial Thokozile Masipa

Judge Thokozile Masipa grew up in a poor township outside Johannesburg, and became the second black woman to become a judge in South Africa.

The high profile trial of Oscar Pistorius means she has become a role model to thousands of young women.

Masipa was born in 1947 in Soweto, Johannesburg. After ma­triculating from Immaculata High School in the Alexandra township in 1966, she obtained a BA degree specialising in Social Work in 1974 and a LLB in 1990 from the University of South Africa. She was admitted as an advocate in 1991.

Prior to her law career, Masipa worked as a social worker and as a crime reporter, which led to her interest in law. She worked for The World, Post and The Sowetan newspapers and edited the Queen women's supplement of Pace magazine.


In 1998, she was appointed as a judge in the Transvaal Provincial Division (as it was then known) of the High Court of South Africa, becoming the second black woman to be appointed as a judge in the High Court after Lucy Mailula, who was appointed to the Transvaal Provincial Division of the Supreme Court (as it was then known) in 1995. Masipa has also served in Gauteng's consumer court tribunal, the Estate Agents Board, and the Electoral Court of South Africa.

In a 2003 interview with the Judicial Service Commission, Masipa supported greater transparency and interaction with the media to aid the public's understanding of the judicial process. She is one of the seven female South African judges featured in Courting Justice, a 2008 documentary film directed by Jane Lipman.

Masipa contributed to case law on the constitutional duties of local government related to housing in her 2009 ruling on Blue Moonlight Properties v Occupiers of Saratoga Avenue.