William (Willie) Andrew Hofmeyr was born on 22 November 1954 in Cape Town. In 1972, he matriculated with six distinctions from Nassau High School.  He then enrolled for a BA degree at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1974, majoring in Economics. He received a class medal for African Government and Law, completing his undergraduate studies in 1976. Hofmeyr completed an MA degree in Economic History, undertaking research on the African National Congress’s (ANC)attempts to organise farm workers in the Western Cape during the Great Depression. Between 1985 and 1988, Hofmeyr completed an LLB degree at UCT. He passed the attorneys’ admission examination in 1991.

Between 1975 and 1994, when South Africa was under the spectre of Total Strategy and increased state and state-sponsored political violence, Hofmeyr was involved in the resistance movement. He joined the South African Committee for Higher Education (SACHED) as a tutor to Black students from Cape Town’s Black Townships of Nyanga, Langa and Gugulethu. This coincided with his years as an active member of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS).

In NUSAS, he became involved in labour-related formations. At the end of 1975, he was elected to the Executive Committee of the NUSAS Wages Commission, where he undertook research on union and labour issues, and assisted in organising the union movement in Cape Town. He was also active in the Western Province Workers Advice Bureau, which preceded the General Workers Union.

Hofmeyr served on the editorial board of Abasebenzi, a monthly newspaper produced by the Wages Commission for the emerging unions, until its banning in June 1976.  From June to November 1976, he was the editor of Umanyano, the successor to Abasebenzi, until it was also banned. On several occasions, he was detained briefly, without charges, for distributing Abasebenzi and Umanyano, and arrested once for participation in an illegal march.

Between 1978 and 1985, Hofmeyr served on the executive of the Labour History Research Group. The group was responsible for producing popular labour and political histories for the labour movement. He combined this activity as a member of the Economic History Research Group, from 1979 to 1982, producing a popular history of South Africa for student organisations.

Hofmeyr joined the United Democratic Front (UDF)at its launch in 1983, rising through the ranks to become its Coordinator, in Gardens, in 1985, and zonal co-ordinator of Cape Town Central, in 1986. The following year he was detained under Emergency Regulations for two weeks, and after being released was elected onto the UDF’s Regional Executive Committee (REC) of the Western Cape as Media Officer and also acted as Treasurer. He remained a member of the REC until the UDF was disbanded in 1991.

His legal expertise was equally beneficial for the UDF when the occasion demanded it. During 1987, Hofmeyr brought a successful court application on behalf of the UDF demanding the unbanning of a public meeting that was banned by the police. Consequently, the Western Cape became the only province where the UDF could organise meetings fairly freely, even though he helped bring about at least another four applications to unban meetings that had been banned.

In February 1988, when the UDF was virtually banned, Hofmeyr was restricted to house arrest under Emergency Regulations. He became part of the committee that conducted the Save the UDF Campaign. Two months later, in April 1988, he was detained under Emergency Regulations for six months, allegedly for not complying with his restriction order. He was released when it became clear that he would win a court case declaring his detention in solitary confinement to be unlawful. Subsequently, Hofmeyr sued the Minister for detaining him under unlawful conditions and was awarded R50 000 damages.

By now, the terrain of struggle for Hofmeyr shifted from the streets on picket lines to organising and representing those detained, in court. In August 1989, he became part of the committee that planned the Defiance Campaign against the apartheid state’s Emergency Regulations. As part of the Campaign, restricted persons defied their restriction orders. After being arrested on four occasions, he was detained and went on a hunger strike for 28 days before being released.

During his hunger strike, he brought a successful court application preventing the police from chaining him to his hospital bed and removing him to a Free State prison. Hofmeyr continued to use his legal expertise to represent numerous political prisoners on Robben Island.

After February 1990, he became very involved in the negotiations for the release of political prisoners, particularly those prisoners who embarked on hunger strike. Hofmeyr was on the committee that organised the welcome rally for the release of Nelson Mandela. From the second half of 1990, he served as the Western Cape Campaigns Co-ordinator for the ANC, before being elected to the full-time position of Assistant Secretary on the Western Cape Executive Committee in 1991, managing the administration and co-ordinating the campaigns of the ANC. During 1993- 1994 he worked full-time as part of the team that co-ordinated the elections campaign in the region, particularly the major events where President Mandela appeared. Hofmeyr attended the ANC National Conference in 1991, the Policy Conference in 1992 and the Constitutional Conference in 1994 in addition to representing the ANC on a number of ad-hoc committees and alliances.  

Hofmeyr was elected to the ANC national list as a Member of Parliament in 1994. His main involvement was on the Justice Portfolio Committee that focused on the implementation of the new Constitutional Structures, the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the reform of the justice system in accordance with international human rights standards.

In the democratic dispensation he became a member of the Constitutional Committee of the Constitutional Assembly, a committee where most of the discussions and negotiations about new constitution took place.

Due to his extensive legal expertise, he served as co-chair of Theme Committee 5 of the Assembly which dealt with the Judiciary and legal system, including the powers of the Constitutional and other courts, the appointment of judges through a Judicial Service Commission and other mechanisms to ensure the independence of the judiciary. It also dealt with the creation of an independent, national prosecuting authority, an involvement which, in recent years, has brought him formidable foes.

Later Hofmeyr became part of the ANC team dealing with the many difficult issues in the Bill of Rights, including the clauses dealing with socio-economic rights, property, equality, the right to life including the death penalty and abortion, administrative justice, the right to information, emergencies, fair trial rights, locus standi, and the limited horizontal application of the Bill of Rights.

He was a member of the Constitutional Commission of the ANC, and served on its extended secretariat during the constitutional negotiations. Hofmeyr was also a member of the ANC’s negotiating team, which met regularly with the National Party to reach agreement or compromise on the many disputed issues during the transition to democracy.

In 1998, he was appointed as the Parliamentary Counsellor to then Deputy-President Thabo Mbeki.

In May 1999, President Thabo Mbeki appointed Hofmeyr as Special Director of Public Prosecutions in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and to establish and head the new Asset Forfeiture Unit. (AFU).

In 2001, he was appointed by President Mbeki as the Deputy National Director of Public Prosecutions and remained as head of the AFU. Following this, in August 2001, Hofmeyr was also appointed as head of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in addition to his AFU position.

References

• Frederikse J. The Unbreakable Thread, Non racialism in South Africa, 1990, Ravan Press, Johannesburg
• Seekings J. History of the UDF, 2000, David Philips, Claremont Cape Town  
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