Bennie Goldin’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Benjamin “Bennie” Goldin QC (5 August 1918 – 2003) was a South African-born Zimbabwean lawyer and judge. He was a justice of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1981. Previously, he served on the High Court of Rhodesia from 1964 to 1980. Born in Cape Town, he immigrated to Rhodesia after World War II, and later returned in 1981 to South Africa, where he served as a judge in Transkei.

Early life, education, and military service

Goldin was born in Cape Town, South Africa, on 5 August 1918 (other sources put his birth year at 1916 or 1919). He attended schools in Cape Town before matriculating at the University of Cape Town, where he received his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws. He entered South Africa’s Union Defence Force during World War II, serving in the Italy and North Africa.

Legal career

After demobilisation, Goldin emigrated from South Africa to Southern Rhodesia. There, he was called to the bar in the capital, Salisbury, and began practicing law. He became a judge in 1960 when he was appointed to the Valuations Court of Southern Rhodesia. In 1962, he was named to the Southern Rhodesian Military Pensions Appeal Circuit. In addition, he was leader of the Rhodesian bar from 1962 to 1965. He served on both the Valuations Court and the Military Pensions Appeal Circuit until 1964, when he became a justice of the High Court of Rhodesia.

Like the entire Rhodesian judiciary, Goldin faced dilemma regarding the illegality of Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 1965. He later wrote about the experience of the Rhodesian judges (including himself), “When faced with a distinct likelihood of a declaration of independence, they were obviously concerned about it as judges and citizens.” Though Goldin was sympathetic to both Governor Humphrey Gibbs and Chief Justice Hugh Beadle, he strongly disagreed with Beadle’s eventual recognition of the Rhodesian government’s claims of sovereignty. In 1973, Goldin heard the appeal of Peter Niesewand, a Rhodesian journalist convicted for “revealing official secrets.” The High Court reversed his conviction, with Goldin and Justice Hector Macdonald concurring with the opinion written by Chief Justice Beadle.

The white Rhodesian government ended with Zimbabwe’s independence in April 1980. On 8 May 1980, Goldin was appointed, effective immediately, to the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe, which superseded the Rhodesian High Court. He sat on the Supreme Court until 1981, when he retired and moved back to South Africa. There, he became a judge on the Supreme Court of Transkei, one of the bantustans, or unrecognised “states” within South Africa set up for black inhabitants. He died in 2003.

Personal life and honours

Goldin was Jewish. He and his wife, Hancy, lived in Salisbury (today Harare), where they were active members of their synagogue. They lived in Que Que (today Kwekwe) for a time, and were active in the Jewish congregation there as well.

Goldin was awarded Queen’s Counsel, an honorific for lawyers. In 1990, he published a book, The Judge, the Prince, and the Usurper – from UDI to Zimbabwe.