Justice Pius
Langa
“The foundations have been laid and miraculously so given where we come from. The project of building and developing the South Africa envisaged by the Constitution has only just started. We are discovering the progress will not be as fast as many hoped.”
Advocate, lawyer, and judge, Justice Pius Nkonzo Langa appeared in most of the significant political trials during the apartheid era. He was one of the first judges appointed to the Constitutional Court and served first as Deputy Chief Justice and then as Chief Justice of South Africa. In addition to his significant contributions to the South African Constitution, Justice Langa was also instrumental in the constitutional review committees of several countries in Africa and worldwide.
Mail & Guardian
Early Life and Career
Pius Nkonzo Langa was born in Bushbuckridge in South Africa on 25 March 1939, the second of seven children born to deeply devout parents. He completed his high school education through private study and then obtained B Luris and LLB degrees by long-distance learning through the University of South Africa.
I went to Adams College to do my secondary education … That signalled one of the earliest miracles in my life. I am referring to the fact that I won a departmental bursary to study at Adams College at a time when my parents had decided, with much regret, that there was no way I could go on with my schooling as they simply had no money to pay for my education.
Pius Langa
first Deputy Chief Justice and then Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court
He began his working life in 1957 at a shirt factory. In 1960 he found employment as an interpreter and messenger for the Department of Justice. He worked his way up to serving as a prosecutor and then magistrate.
One advantage I derived from working at magistrate’s offices and courts, and participating in court processes, was developing a growing love for law as a means of solving at least some of the problems that confronted our people … The determination grew in me to develop myself to reach a position where I could wield some influence to change the way things were. I decided that I would use the law books and textbooks at these offices, magistrate’s courts, to assist me in studying law.
Pius Langa
first Deputy Chief Justice and then Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court
He was admitted as an Advocate of the Supreme Court of South Africa in June 1977, practised at the Natal Bar, and attained the rank of Senior Counsel in January 1994.
There was never a time when one was not busy, running around helping to get political demonstrators out on bail; intervening in violent confrontations between political adversaries, and between political demonstrators and the police; holding consultations in prisons and in police cells with activists who had been arrested and detained; and organising and attending funerals and memorial services for activists who had been killed in conflicts with the police, or as victims of Third Force activities, or in political and other violent confrontations.
Pius Langa
first Deputy Chief Justice and then Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court
He was a founding member of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADEL) and its President from 1988 to 1994. In addition, he served on the boards and as a trustee of various law-related institutions, and was involved in the founding of the South African Legal Defence Fund (SALDEF). He served as a commissioner on the pre-constitutional Human Rights Commission (later known as the Human Rights Committee).
In his years living in a township, he was deeply involved in community work and attempted to improve the quality of life of those around him. He helped organise civic organisations and residents’ associations, and gave guidance to youth and recreational clubs.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, he served in the United Democratic Front (UDF) and was involved in the work of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) and of its successor, the Multi-Party Negotiating Process (MPNP). He was also a member of the Constitutional Committee of the ANC, and a member of the advisor group during the Groote Schuur and Pretoria “Talks-about-Talks”.
I was involved during the earlier part of CODESA. There were groups which specialised in different aspects or themes, but there was a lot of shifting around too. One did not stay in one group. As a legal person that was recognised, and I would find myself more often than not busy with stuff related to that.
Pius Langa
first Deputy Chief Justice and then Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court
1994 was no idle transition; it was the result of a conscious choice and commitment that we would henceforth live a new life and be governed in a new way; it was a choice that we would confront and address the ills of our society through the instruments of democracy and constitutionalism.
Pius Langa
First Deputy Chief Justice and then Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court State Of The NAtion Address, 9 May 1994
In 1998, he chaired a commission probing the Lesotho elections on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and in 2000 he was appointed the Commonwealth’s Special Envoy to assist the Fiji Islands’ return to democracy. He subsequently participated in the work of constitutional review commissions in Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and Tanzania, and led a delegation of the International Bar Association (IBA) to Cameroon, at the request of the Cameroonian government, to review and integrate that country’s system of criminal procedure.
Appointment to the Constitutional Court
Langa was appointed as a judge to the Constitutional Court in 1994. He became Chief Justice of South Africa in June 2005 and served until his retirement in October 2009. As Chief Justice, he chaired the Judicial Service Commission and the Southern African Judges Commission, a forum of regional chief justices. He was also a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
It came as quite a high point in my life when I was told that I had made the short list … I think it was actually Arthur Chaskalson who phoned me and told me that I was to be appointed. There was a lot of excitement, particularly when he convened the first meeting of members of the Constitutional Court. We met as colleagues. I think some of us were overawed by the whole experience. Certainly I was … It was a matter of great pride to me – not unmixed with apprehension – that we had been chosen to bring about these huge changes, to deal with these very difficult issues in the early days of South Africa’s constitutional and democratic development.
Pius Langa
first Deputy Chief Justice and then Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court
Judgments of Interest
Bhe and Others v Khayelitsha Magistrate and Others (2004)
This case dealt with apartheid legislation, the Black Administration Act (the Act), that governed the estates of people who live under African customary law and die without a will, preventing women and children from inheriting. In a judgment written by Deputy Chief Justice Langa, the Constitutional Court found that the Act violated the rights to equality and dignity under the Constitution and that it must be struck down. The Court held that section 23 of the Act was an outdated and antiquated piece of legislation which solidified ‘official’ customary law and caused violations of the rights of black African people, mainly women and children.
Quite clearly, the Constitution itself envisages a place for customary law in our legal system. Certain provisions of the Constitution put it beyond doubt that our basic law specifically requires that customary law should be accommodated, not merely tolerated, as part of South African law, provided the particular rules or provisions are not in conflict with the Constitution.
Deputy Chief Justice Pius Langa
the Bhe judgment, 15 October 2004
MEC for Education: KwaZulu-Natal and Others v Pillay (2007)
Sunali Pillay, a learner at Durban Girls’ High School, was not allowed to wear a nose stud at school as it violated the school’s code of conduct that she had signed. Wearing the nose stud was a time-honoured family and cultural tradition for Sunali and her South Indian family. The School, aware of this, still refused to allow Sunali to wear the nose stud and threatened her with disciplinary hearings and actions. In a judgment written by Chief Justice Langa, the Constitutional Court found that the school’s refusal to allow Sunali to wear the nose stud and consequently, the refusal for her to practice her culture, was discriminatory.
Preventing her from wearing it (nose stud) for several hours of each school day would undermine the practice and therefore constitute a significant infringement of her religious and cultural identity. What is relevant is the symbolic effect of denying her the right to wear it for even a short period; it sends a message that Sunali, her religion, and her culture are not welcome.
If there are other learners who hitherto are afraid to express their religions or cultures and who will now be encouraged to do so, that is something to be celebrated, not feared. As a general rule, the more learners that feel free to express their religions and cultures in school, the closer we will come to the society envisaged in the Constitution. The display of religion and culture in public is not a ‘parade of horribles’ but a pageant of diversity which will enrich our schools and in turn our country.
Chief Justice Pius Langa
the Pillay judgment, 5 October 2007
Life after the Constitutional Court
In March 2008, Langa was honoured with the eThekwini Living Legends award, together with other local figures who had excelled in their respective fields, and the following month President Thabo Mbeki bestowed upon him the Order of the Supreme Counsellor of the Baobab: Gold.
At home the Universities of Zululand, the Western Cape, Cape Town and South Africa and Rhodes University, and abroad Yale University, the National University of Ireland and North-Eastern University (Boston) all awarded him honorary doctorates.
Family and Personal Life
Langa married Thandekile Mncwabe in 1966 and had six children and a number of grandchildren. He died in Johannesburg on 24 July 2013.
What it was like to know him
One detail that immediately comes to mind is about bhut Pius’s adherence to principle. In 1984 May, Ben Langa, his younger brother, was shot dead and the killers were sentenced to death. As President of NADEL, Pius fought vainly for the sentence to be commuted to life. He was able to put his own personal considerations or interest aside in pursuit of principle.
He was a good storyteller and every family gathering provided him an opportunity to tell stories that gave us a deeper understanding of our country and our world. And, of course, he had a wry sense of humour borne out of witnessing human foibles and frailties. He loved classical and gospel music and read quite extensively outside of legal literature.
Mandla Langa
brother of Pius Langa, writer and cultural activist
Justice (Pius) Langa, is a wonderful man. I regard him as a type of a sage. He himself was always open to discussion, to being persuaded … there was that openness, that sincere willingness, to listen … Justice Langa, is a quiet man, a very deliberative man. He’s actually very funny as well. Although in a quiet, sort of dry sense of humour. We would present him with a view and he wouldn’t always or immediately react to that. He would think through the issues.
David Bilchitz
former law clerk to Justice Langa
Pius Langa was a remarkable man. His quiet and ponderous disposition belied a stern resolve to be what he could be and to change the lives of others at the edges of society. The trajectory of his life testifies to this.
Pius was much more than a good human being. He was a remarkable jurist. He penned judgments well worth celebrating. His writing mirrored his quiet wisdom and human solidarity. He chose simple and accessible language to capture complex legal reasoning. He understood that a judge must strive to reach a just outcome and to account to the people for it. He took seriously the promise of our Constitution for a better life for all and used it to shield or enrich the lives of its intended beneficiaries – ‘we the people’.
Dikgang Moseneke
former Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court
He achieved so much in his life and touched many people with his quiet dignity, his generosity and his sparkling humour. As a lawyer, he had a profound impact on the establishment of our new democracy and the adoption of our cherished Constitution. Through his work on the Constitutional Court, he charted a path for us all to follow to reach what he called the ‘vision of the Constitution’. And as a man, he served as an example to all of us: he was strong, committed, empathetic, thoughtful and kind.
Alistair Price and Michael Bishop
former law clerks to Justice Langa
