On 16 June 1975, at the comparatively young age of 43, Didcott joined the Natal bench permanently as a judge of the Supreme Court. writing that: It might be a fine protest, but it would soon dissipate, and the vacancies would be filled by people who had no qualms about injustice. If we argue that moral judges should resign, we can no longer pray when we go into court that we find a moral judge on the bench. or, by his admirers, as "intolerant of mediocrity".
Jurisprudence Apartheid Didcott wrote several significant judgments in
civil cases, including
Roffey v Catterall, on the
onus of proof in
restraint of trade disputes.''' In the later case, brought by the
Metal and Allied Workers' Union, he upheld various emergency regulations but struck down several
limitations on subversive speech and ruled that persons arrested under the state of emergency must be given access to a lawyer. The following year, Didcott overturned a government ban on foreign donations to the
United Democratic Front, then the country's foremost anti-apartheid organisation. Didcott was also openly critical of the government of President
P. W. Botha and his predecessors, especially on the grounds that they
usurped judicial powers and undermined the
rule of law; observers believed that these statements ruled him out of contention for elevation to the Supreme Court's
Appellate Division. he held that, if a trial without representation would be grossly unfair, a presiding judge should go so far as to order that the accused receive
legal aid.
Khanyile was overturned by the Appellate Division in
S v Rudman; S v Mthwana. Didcott was also a well-known opponent of
capital punishment; Although prevailing legislation imposed the death penalty as a
mandatory sentence in a broad range of circumstances, he – unusually among apartheid judges – never sentenced to a defendant to death, always ascertaining
extenuating circumstances that justified a lighter penalty. His friend
Jack Greenberg later recalled that, "When I asked him how he could maintain that record, he said he always found a reason. I said, 'What if you weren't able to find a reason?' and he said, 'Then I'd resign.''' From August to December 1984, Didcott was a visiting scholar at the
Columbia Law School in
New York,
Statutory interpretation Because of his "innovative" interpretation of
apartheid legislation, Didcott was sometimes subject to the criticism – as paraphrased by
David Dyzenhaus – that he "was in dereliction of his duty because in order to establish his unblemished record, he had to lie about the law", trenching on
parliamentary sovereignty.The
In re Dube judgment was admired both by Justice
Richard Goldstone and by Chief Justice
Arthur Chaskalson; indeed, Goldstone later said that Didcott was his judicial "role model".
Post-apartheid transition Following the
negotiations to end apartheid, Didcott was a member of the
Special Electoral Court that handled disputes arising during South Africa's
first post-apartheid elections on 26 April 1994. but he was shortlisted and interviewed by the
Judicial Service Commission in October 1994. Thereafter, on the recommendation of the Judicial Service Commission, he was one of six additional judges appointed by Mandela, and he left the Supreme Court on 12 October 1994. == Constitutional Court: 1995–1998 ==