UNLIKE its politicians, South Africa's leading judges are little known outside the small legal fraternity. There are, of course, one or two exceptions. Judge Ismail Mohomed, the man tipped to be the next Chief Justice, is one. Judge Albie Sachs is another.
Judge Sachs is due to deliver the Oliver Tambo memorial lecture at the Mansion House, Dublin, tonight at 8 p.m.
The career path of Judge Albert Louis Sachs (61) to the judiciary involved a baptism of fire in South Africa's political cauldron. Long before becoming a judge in the Constitutional Court, he had acquired fame - or, in the eyes of the apartheid establishment, notoriety - as a political leader in the African National Congress.
Until shortly before his appointment as a judge of the Constitutional Court (from a shortlist of 10 candidates) by President Nelson Mandela, Judge Sachs was a member of the national executive of the ANC.
During the settlement negotiations between 1990 and 1993, he served on the ANC constitutional committee, helping to shape the interim constitution under which South Africa's first non racial parliamentary elections were held in April 1994.
A majority of the 17 members of the Judicial Service Commission, which pared down the candidates for the Constitutional Court to the shortlist of 10, were either ANC men or women or people inclined towards the ANC. President Mandela, the man who had the final say, was the embodiment of the ANC.
But that does not mean that Judge Sachs was not eminently qualified to fulfil his role as a constitutional judge. Like some of his fellow judges on the Constitutional Court, he undertook to resign from the ANC if appointed.
A holder of an LIB and a PhD degree in law, Judge Sachs had practical experience as an advocate before he went into exile in the mid 1960s. He has taught at several universities, including the Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique and the University of the Western Cape.
While serving in the Mozambique Ministry of Justice, he was almost killed in a 1988 car bomb explosion in Maputo, the work of a South African special agent.
Prof Sachs, as he then was, suffered serious injuries: his lungs were ruptured, his liver lacerated, an eye damaged and his right arm reduced to a stump.
A photograph showing him sitting up in a hospital bed smiling engraved itself on the minds of many South Africans and even won him grudging admiration from his political enemies.
A prolific writer and winner of awards for his literary skills, he wrote an account of his recovery from the Mozambique blast, The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter. Like an earlier book recalling his experience in a South African prison, The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, it was dramatised for broadcast by the BBC.
During his interview for the Constitutional Court position Prof Sachs was grilled about his role in an internal ANC inquiry. This involved the prolonged detention and death shortly after his release of a guerrilla commander, Thami Zulu, suspected of being a spy.
Prof Sachs was criticised for failing to file a minority report condemning the months long detention of Zulu, particularly in view of his reputation as a defender of human rights.
Prof Sachs justified his decision by arguing that he believed a consensual report" would have a better chance of persuading the ANC leadership to adopt a code of conduct aimed at avoiding a repetition of the events which led to Zulu's death.
His reply brought a swift response from Mr David Gordon, one of the members of the Judicial Service Commission, who accused him of selling his soul for the "sake of unanimity".
His failure - as his critics saw it - to protect Mr Zulu led to questions in some quarters about his willingness to fight for the rights enshrined in South Africa's constitution.
However, since its formal establishment early last year the Constitutional Court has shown itself to be an independent institution determined to defend the constitution and uphold the principle of the rule of law. Judge Sachs has undoubtedly contributed to the respect the court has won from the wider South African public.