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113 S. African L.J. 685 (1996)
In Memoriam: Etienne Mureinik

handle is hein.journals/soaf113 and id is 701 raw text is: NOTES AND COMMENTS IN MEMORIAM: ETIENNE MUREINIK ELLISON KAHN Professor Emeritus of Law, University of the Witwatersrand,Johannesburg At about 9.45 on the morning of Wednesday 10 July, Etienne Mureinik, a professor of law in the University of the Witwatersrand, parked his motor car in the garage of the Parktonian Hotel in Braamfontein. He had inspected the building the previous day on leaving the Constitutional Court, where he was representing the Association of Law Societies in submitting its objec- tions to the text of the final Constitution as passed by the Constitutional Assembly. According to Mr Peter Leon, leader of the Democratic Party in the Gauteng legislature, who was the other member of the team representing the Association, Etienne had quietly told him 'in the dying sunlight of a mid-winter afternoon ... that he was unlikely to make Thursday's session of the Constitutional Court'. He appeared tired and withdrawn.' Having parked his car, Etienne booked in at the hotel. According to the receptionist, he appeared 'normal'. He requested a room on one of the top floors, and that the computer should state that the room allocated to him must not be changed. Having paid R375 by credit card for accommodation until the following morning, he caught the lift to room 2301 on the twenty-third floor, carrying with him a canvas bag containing clothing and toiletries. On the bed he placed a plastic folder, in which were a copy of his identity document, a medical certificate and doctors' and pharmacists' accounts. Also he placed on the bed his keys and R400 in notes. Thereafter he took off his brown slip-on shoes. At about 10:30 he jumped out of the window.2 The suicide of this brilliant academic, conducted with an efficiency that made one's blood run cold, caused widespread shock and grief. That he had been deeply depressed for some time was known to his family and some colleagues, though I was not aware of it. He had seen three psychiatrists and been treated with drugs; but they did not release him from the fell clutches of his depression. No one, however, believed that he was in a suicidal frame of mind. He was buried on the following Friday at West Park Cemetery in Johannesburg before members of his family and some 250 colleagues, friends See Sunday Times 14July 1996 p 9 and p 5. 2 See Nicola Koz in Sunday Times 14July 1996 p 5;Johan Kuus in Rapport 14July 1996 p 5.

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