The death has been announced of Arthur Chaskalson, a former Chief Justice of South Africa, heralded as a forefather of the nation's democracy. He was 81 and suffered from leukaemia.

Judge Chaskalson, a leading member of South Africa's Jewish community, who served as Chief Justice from 2001-2005 and as President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1994-2001, was also a renowned anti-apartheid campaigner.

He is perhaps best known as a member of the defence team for the 1963 Rivonia t rial, in which he represented Nelson Mandela and nine other African National Congress leaders, who were being tried for 221 acts of sabotage designed to overthrow the apartheid government.