DISTRICT 9350

DISTRICT GOVERNOR ELECT 2011-2012
DEON AND ELSA VAN ZYL

DGE 2011-2012 Deon and Elsa van Zyl

DEON VAN ZYL was born in Springs in 1943 and underwent his schooling at Pinegrove Primary and Springs Boys' High School.  At the University of Pretoria he did a BA (Law) LLB and then a BA (Hons) and MA in Latin. After brief study sojourns in Paris and Hamburg, he acquired a doctorate in law at the University of Leyden in the Netherlands. He followed this up with a PhD and LLD from the University of Cape Town and a D Litt from the University of the Free State.

He initially embarked on an academic career, inter alia as professor of law at the Universities of the Free State and Pretoria, before commencing practice as an advocate in Bloemfontein and Pretoria, where he was appointed a Senior Advocate (SC) in 1983. He then served as a Judge of the High Court for some twenty three years, initially in Pretoria and thereafter in Cape Town. On his retirement in 2008 he became Inspecting Judge of Prisons.

In the international sphere he has been the President for Africa of the World Jurist Association (Washington DC) since 1995 and has been a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Lausanne) since 1999. He was a charter member of the Rotary Club of Gordon’s Bay in 1998, serving as its president in 2000 2001 and receiving from it a Paul Harris award in 2003. He has been an Assistant Governor for two years. He has been involved with school governing bodies for a number of years.

In 1986 he married Elsa (van Rensburg), who was born in Ventersdorp in 1964 and did her schooling at Ventersdorp Primary and Volkskool In Potchefstroom. After completing a BSc degree (Zoology and Botany) and a Higher Education Diploma at the University of Pretoria, she taught for a few years at various schools in Johannesburg and Pretoria. They have two daughters, namely Esther, born in 1994, and Christine Marié, born in 1998.