Kobus joined the LRC in 1987. He served as Regional Director of the LRC Cape Town office from May 2008 until his tragic and untimely death on 4th February 2011. For more than a quarter century he worked with relentless energy and passion to promote justice in South Africa. He was dedicated to attacking a central pillar of apartheid rule: the denial of land rights to the vast majority of South Africans.

During some of apartheid's bleakest days in the 1980s, he took up the cause of communities that were slated for removal by the white minority government, working long hours in isolated rural areas. He was later instrumental in improving the lives of thousands of the same and other poor South Africans by working to assure their security of tenure and enable their access to the land which had been denied them by the apartheid state. He provided invaluable legal support to communities in places so remote that their names often were unfamiliar to most South Africans.

Kobus's contribution to land and agrarian reform is immeasurable. As a proud Afrikaner who never took the easy road, he stood up to be counted acting as a human rights defender - even when it was not easy. He was passionate about ensuring that ordinary people would enjoy the rights guaranteed them in our country's Constitution. His love for his friends and family, especially his son Benjamin and his wife Hester, was worn openly on his sleeve.

You live on in our memories, Kobus. May you rest in peace, always.