Jonathan Arthur Heher (born 16 June 1943) is a South African retired judge who served in the Supreme Court of Appeal from 2003 to 2013.
[1] After graduating, Heher worked for the Department of Justice from 1965 to 1966,[1] serving as a prosecutor and state advocate in the office of the attorney-general in Pietermaritzburg.
[2] While sitting in the Johannesburg High Court in 1998, Heher heard the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality's challenge to the common law offence of sodomy.
[3] His order was unanimously upheld by the Constitutional Court in the landmark National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v Minister of Justice.
[4] In January 2016, amid the Fees Must Fall protests, President Jacob Zuma appointed Heher to chair a three-member commission of inquiry tasked with investigating the feasibility of fee-free higher education and training in South Africa.