Judge PEET NIENABER who has served as the Ombudsman for Long-term Insurance since the beginning of 2003 will relinquish that position with practical effect from 31 May 2007.
He will be succeeded as Ombudsman by Judge BRIAN GALGUT who served as Deputy Judge President of the Natal Provincial Division of the High Court from 2001 until he elected to go off active service as a judge in 2004.
Judge Galgut attended Pretoria Boys High School and the Universities of Stellenbosch and Pretoria. He was admitted as an advocate and a member of the Pretoria Bar in 1961. He took silk in 1979 and relocated to Durban in 1985 when he was appointed as a judge of the Natal Provincial Division.
After retirement Judge Galgut was active in alternative dispute resolution, not only in presiding in various arbitrations but also in acting, by agreement with SARS, as the facilitator between parties in appeals in terms of the Income Tax Act of 1962 or the Value-Added Tax Act of 1991.
Judge Galgut was a sportsman of note in his younger days. He earned first team colours at cricket and golf at Stellenbosch University and played briefly for the first team at rugby. He also played provincial cricket for Northern Transvaal (then called North-Eastern Transvaal) and was, for many years, a committee member and vice-captain of the Swartkop Country Club.
Judge Galgut is married to Ethelene and has three children from a previous marriage including the well-known novelist Damon Galgut.
Get the latest issue of FAnews