Durban — The late retired Judge Shyam Gyanda has been remembered as a valued member of the Bench by KwaZulu-Natal Judge President Thoba Poyo-Dlwati.
“A trusted colleague and a friend to all both at the Bar and on the Bench. In addition to sound advice, he always had a kind word and a smile for all who sought his counsel and guidance, and if the occasion permitted it, a joke, sometimes naughty and sometimes wicked, would be added in,” said Judge Poyo-Dlwati in a statement on Wednesday.
Judge Gyanda graduated from the then University of Durban-Westville in 1978 with BA and LLB degrees. He joined the Durban Bar, served pupillage under Peter Gastrow, and was one of the founding members of Advocates Group 7 in Salmon Grove Chambers.
He had a wide and thriving practice as an advocate and also served as a member of the Heath Investigative Unit. After a few stints as an acting judge in the Eastern Cape and in KwaZulu-Natal, he was appointed permanently to the KwaZulu-Natal Bench in 2001.
His funeral was on Wednesday afternoon at the Clare Estate Crematorium Hall.
Judge Poyo-Dlwati said: “In a moment of profound sorrow, the judges in KwaZulu-Natal learned of the death of Judge Shyam Gyanda on 17 June 2024, a few months before what would have been his 70th birthday on 1 September 2024.
“He discharged his duty with courage and diligence. Sadly, failing health persuaded Judge Gyanda to seek release a little earlier than he would have liked, and he retired on 31 May 2020. We remember our brother with fondness.
“The judges of the KwaZulu-Natal Division send their heartfelt condolences to his widow, Shireen, his children Kajal, Sahil, and Alka, and to the wider family.”
Judge Gyanda will also be remembered for some of the convictions and sentences he handed down that were covered in the Daily News.
In 2020 he sentenced former professional jockey Graham Gregorowski to life imprisonment for the murder of his girlfriend, Janet Scott.
Scott’s body was found by neighbours in Horseshoe Cottage in Shongweni on October 15, 2016, with Gregorowski lying next to her.
In the same year, Judge Gyanda sentenced Laston Moodley to two terms of life imprisonment for the rape and murder of 7-year-old Amanda Myaka, who lived in a block of flats in Verulam.
In 2018 he imposed 10 life terms and an additional 235 years on Amos Ganyeni Ngobeni who had raped 19 women in the Inanda area.
In 2014 he sentenced Thulani Mlungisi Khanyile for the murder of Newlands East teenager Delyn Emelio Louw, and the rape of his female companion in KwaMashu.
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