Pius Langa

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Pius Nkonzo Langa , SCOB (born March 25, 1939 in Bushbuckridge ; † July 24, 2013 in Johannesburg ) was a South African lawyer, judge at the Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa and served as its chairman from 2005 to 2009.

Education and professional career

Langa was born the second youngest of seven children of a pastor into a very religious family and grew up in a township . He obtained his school leaving certificate mainly as an autodidact , since he had to work in a textile factory from 1957 before he got a job as a translator at the court. He obtained his Bachelor of Law degree in 1976 in a distance learning course at the University of South Africa and was admitted to the bar in June 1977. He specialized in political court proceedings and represented apartheid opponents as well as trade unions .

In the late 1980s he was active in the United Democratic Front and was a member of the Presidium of the Democratic Lawyers Association . He was also one of the founders of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers , of which he was chairman between 1988 and 1994. After the end of apartheid, Langa played a key role in the democratization of his home country. He was a member of a committee to reorganize the police force in South Africa . In 1994 Nelson Mandela appointed him to the newly established Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa. In this position he campaigned against the death penalty , among other things .

Langa was also involved in democratization in other countries. Among other things, in 1998 he chaired a working group on changing electoral law in Lesotho , the Langa Commission, on behalf of the Southern African Development Community . Two years later, he traveled to Fiji as a special envoy for the Commonwealth of Nations to support democratization there. Subsequently, he worked as a consultant on the drafting of the constitutions of Sri Lanka , Zimbabwe , Rwanda and Tanzania . As a member of a commission of the International Lawyers' Association , Langa also helped revise the criminal procedural law in Cameroon .

From 2001 to 2005 he took over the post of Deputy Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa, after which he succeeded Arthur Chaskalson as Chairman of the Court. He held this position until his retirement in 2009. In addition to his judicial work, Langa held several visiting professorships at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas . He was also Chancellor of the University of Natal between 1998 and 2004 and was appointed its first Chancellor after the University of the Nelson Mandela Metropolis was founded .

Others

Langa was married to Thandekile Mncwabe from 1966 to 2009, with whom he had six children. He was also a multiple grandfather. One of his brothers emigrated from South Africa as a result of apartheid, another was executed by South African security forces as a member of the Umkhonto we Sizwe .

Awards (selection)

Publications (selection)

  • Submission to the truth and reconciliation commission on the role of the judiciary . In: The South African law journal . 115, No. 1, 1998, ISSN  0038-2388 , pp. 36-42.
  • The protection of human rights by the judiciary and other structures in South Africa . In: SMU law review . 52, No. 4, 1999, ISSN  0038-4836 , pp. 1531-1538.
  • South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission . In: The international lawyer . 34, No. 1, 2000, ISSN  0020-7810 , pp. 347-354.
  • Equality provisions of the South African constitution . In: SMU law review . 54, No. 4, 2001, ISSN  0038-4836 , pp. 2101-2105.
  • Transformative constitutionalism . In: Stellenbosse regstydskrif . 17, No. 3, 2006, ISSN  1016-4359 , pp. 351-360.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Address by Justice Minister Jeff Radebe on the occasion of Langa's funeral on August 1, 2013, p. 1 (PDF; 148 kB)
  2. ^ Obituary for Langa by Dikgang Moseneke from July 25, 2013 (PDF; 52 kB) p. 1
  3. ↑ Address by Justice Minister Jeff Radebe on the occasion of Langa's funeral service on August 1, 2013, p. 2 (PDF; 148 kB)
  4. ^ Obituary for Langa by Dikgang Moseneke from July 25, 2013 (PDF; 52 kB) p. 1 f.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Langa, Pius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Langa, Pius Nkonzo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African lawyer, presiding judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Bushbuckridge
DATE OF DEATH July 24, 2013
Place of death Johannesburg