Pius Langa

{{Short description|South African lawyer and judge (1939–2013)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Use South African English|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Pius Langa | image = Pius Langa.jpg | image_size = | caption = Langa in December 2011 | office = Chief Justice of South Africa | term_start = 1 June 2005 | term_end = 11 October 2009 | nominator = | appointer = Thabo Mbeki | predecessor = Arthur Chaskalson | successor = Sandile Ngcobo | deputy = Dikgang Moseneke | office2 = Deputy President of the Constitutional Court | nominator2 = | appointer2 = Nelson Mandela | predecessor2 = Ismail Mahomed | successor2 = Himself {{small|(as Deputy Chief Justice)}} | office3 = Justice of the Constitutional Court | term_start3 = 14 February 1995 | term_end3 = 11 October 2009 | appointer3 = Nelson Mandela | predecessor3 = ''Court established'' | birth_name = Pius Nkonzo Langa | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1939|03|25}} | birth_place = Bushbuckridge, Transvaal<br />Union of South Africa | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2013|7|24|1939|3|25}} | death_place = Johannesburg, Gauteng<br />Republic of South Africa | relations = Bheki Langa (brother)<br />Mandla Langa (brother)<br />Ben Langa (brother) | alma_mater = University of South Africa | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=ZAR|SCOB}} | office1 = Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa | term_start1 = November 2001 | term_start2 = August 1997 | term_end2 = November 2001 | appointer1 = Thabo Mbeki | successor1 = Dikgang Moseneke | predecessor1 = Hennie van Heerden | term_end1 = 31 May 2005 | spouse = {{marriage|Beauty Langa|1966|2009|reason=died}} | education = Adams College }}

'''Pius Nkonzo Langa''' <small>SCOB</small> (25 March 1939 – 24 July 2013) was Chief Justice of South Africa from June 2005 to October 2009. Formerly a human rights lawyer, he was appointed as a puisne judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa upon its inception in 1995. He was the Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa from November 2001 until May 2005, when President Thabo Mbeki elevated him to the Chief Justiceship. He was South Africa's first black African Chief Justice.

The son of a Zulu pastor, Langa left school as a teenager to enter the workforce. Over the next two decades, he studied for his matric certificate while working in a clothing factory and then studied for his legal qualifications while working as a civil servant in the Department of Justice. He left the civil service at the rank of magistrate in 1977, when he was admitted as an advocate. Thereafter he practised law in Durban, specialising in the defence of anti-apartheid activists accused of political offences. He was a member of the United Democratic Front and the president of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers from 1988 to 1994. During the same period, he attended the negotiations to end apartheid as a member of the Constitutional Committee of the African National Congress.

Shortly after he took silk in January 1994, Langa was appointed to the newly established Constitutional Court by post-apartheid President Nelson Mandela. In August 1997, Mandela additionally appointed him as the court's second Deputy President; his title was changed to Deputy Chief Justice after the Sixth Constitutional Amendment was passed in November 2001. On 1 June 2005, he succeeded Arthur Chaskalson as Chief Justice, a position which he held until his mandatory retirement in October 2009.

Leading the court during a period of political turmoil, Langa was widely respected for his mild and conciliatory manner, though he was also subject to criticism from both populist and conservative quarters. In particular, he is remembered for leading the court in lodging a controversial misconduct complaint against Judge John Hlophe, who was accused of attempting to interfere with the Constitutional Court's judgment in the politically sensitive matter of ''Thint v National Director of Public Prosecutions''.

==Early life and education== Langa was born on 25 March 1939 in Bushbuckridge in the former Transvaal Province.<ref name=":1" /> He was the second of seven siblings, with four brothers and two sisters.<ref name=":8">{{Cite web |last=Barron |first=Chris |date=28 July 2013 |title=Pius Langa: Former chief justice |url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2013-07-28-obituary-pius-langa-former-chief-justice/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=Sunday Times |language=en-ZA}}</ref><ref name=":9">{{Cite interview |last=Langa |first=Pius |title=Court Oral History Project |url=https://www.concourttrust.org.za/uploads/files/Pius_Langa_.pdf |via=Constitutional Court Trust |date=2011–2012}}</ref> Their father, Simon Peter Langa, was a Zulu-speaking charismatic preacher from Natal, whose work for the Pentecostal Holiness Church had brought the family to Bushbuckridge temporarily.<ref name=":8" /> Their mother was Swazi, and, because their father's work required frequent travel, Langa learned several other South African languages as a child.<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal |last=Kriegler |first=Johann |date=August 2005 |title=Chief Justice Pius Nkonzo Langa |url=https://www.gcbsa.co.za/law-journals/2005/august/2005-august-vol018-no2-pp33-35.pdf |journal=Advocate |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=33–35}}</ref> The family left Bushbuckridge during his infancy and spent several years in various parts of the Northern Transvaal, primarily in Pietersburg, until in 1949 they settled in Stanger, Natal.<ref name=":9" />

Langa attended primary school in Stanger and then completed two years of secondary education, in 1954 and 1955, at Adams College in Amanzimtoti. He later called his sojourn at Adams College "one of the earliest miracles in my life": his parents could not afford to pay for his secondary education, but he received a bursary to attend the college, where his elder brother, Sam, was a trainee teacher.<ref name=":9" /> At the end of 1955, then aged 16, he left school with a first-class junior certificate to find a job in the urban centre of Durban.<ref name=":9" />

== Early career: 1956–1977 ==

=== Clothing factory === Langa spent 1956 unemployed in Durban, looking for work and "struggling" with government administrators over their application of the pass laws: because his ''dompas'' recorded his home district as Bushbuckridge, he was not allowed to live in Natal while unemployed.<ref name=":9" /> He was deeply affected by this early experience of the "ugliness" of apartheid, later writing in a submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that, "In that first flush of youth, I had thought I could do anything, aspire to anything and that nothing could stop me. I was wrong."<ref name=":8" />

Though he had initially hoped to find a clerical job, Langa was finally employed at a clothing factory in early 1957. The factory made shirts and he was tasked with distributing textiles among the machinists.<ref name=":9" /> In his spare time, he studied independently for his matric exams, which he passed at the end of 1960.<ref name=":10" />

=== Civil service === After matriculating, Langa joined the Department of Justice in a low-level position, serving as a court interpreter and messenger.<ref name=":1" /> Over the next 17 years, he worked continuously in a series of magistrate's courts across Natal, beginning with nine months in rural Impendle, then several years in Harding, and then stints in Camperdown, Howick, Stanger, and Ndwedwe.<ref name=":9" /> During his early years as an interpreter and clerk, he developed "a growing love for law as a means of solving at least some of the problems that confronted our people", and he became convinced that a legal education was a prerequisite to influencing the justice system.<ref name=":9" />

In 1970,<ref name=":9" /> he enrolled in a part-time correspondence program at the University of South Africa, and he graduated with a BJuris in 1973 and an LLB in 1976.<ref name=":1" /> At the same time, with his BJuris degree, he rose through the ranks of the magistrate's offices, becoming a prosecutor and then a magistrate.<ref name=":10" />

=== Family life === During the same period, Langa occasionally spent time at his family home in KwaMashu, a township outside Durban. His three younger brothers were all active in the student anti-apartheid movement, and in the mid-1970s, during the era of the Soweto uprising, the house became "a hotbed" for their activist activities and sometimes for Special Branch raids.<ref name=":9" /> Because his brothers and their friends were adherents of Black Consciousness politics, while he was attracted to the non-racialism of the rival Charterist faction, Langa "regarded it as my function to debate with them" about politics.<ref name=":6" />

Langa's father died in 1972 and his mother in 1984.<ref name=":9" /> Two of his younger brothers, Bheki and Mandla, left South Africa for exile in the aftermath of the Soweto uprising; they ultimately became a diplomat and a novelist respectively.<ref name=":6" /> The third, Ben, was assassinated in 1984 by his comrades in the African National Congress (ANC), who wrongly believed that he had become a police informant.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-02-22 |title=Impimpi accusations are 'reckless' |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2019-02-22-00-impimpi-accusations-are-reckless/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> According to Mark Gevisser, Langa's moral opposition to capital punishment was such that he called publicly for the killers to be spared the death penalty, though they were hanged anyway.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1996-08-30 |title=Author in need of healing |url=https://mg.co.za/article/1996-08-30-mandla-langa-author-of-the-naked-song/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref>

== Legal practice: 1977–1994 == After completing his LLB, Langa left the civil service and returned to Durban, where he was admitted as an advocate of the Supreme Court of South Africa in June 1977.<ref name=":1" /> He practised at the Natal Bar for the next 17 years, with a varied practice but an overwhelming focus on political trials brought under apartheid legislation.<ref name=":10" /> While he was junior counsel, he was frequently briefed by his close friend Griffiths Mxenge,<ref name=":8" /> and he worked under silks including George Bizos and Ismail Mahomed;<ref name=":9" /> he and Dikgang Moseneke were Bizos's junior counsel in 1991 when Bizos defended Winnie Madikizela-Mandela against the charge of kidnapping Stompie Seipei.<ref>{{Cite news |date=22 May 2007 |title=Why Nelson and Winnie got divorced |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/why-nelson-and-winnie-got-divorced-354079 |access-date=25 February 2024 |work=IOL}}</ref> Langa's other activist clients included Patrick Maqubela, Jeff Radebe, Penuell Maduna, Nceba Faku, and Tony Yengeni, whom he defended against charges ranging from public violence to sabotage, treason, and murder.<ref name=":9" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-09-04 |title=Radebe, Ngcuka and the mysterious death of a judge |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2009-09-04-radebe-ngcuka-and-the-mysterious-death-of-a-judge/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> He also represented various civic bodies and trade unions.<ref name=":1" />

Although Langa "kept a professional distance from the ANC", which was banned at the time,<ref name=":8" /> he was personally involved in various offshoots of the anti-apartheid movement. Among other things, he was a member of the executive committee of the Democratic Lawyers Association, an affiliate of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and then became a founding member of its successor organisation, the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADEL).<ref name=":10" /> He served as NADEL's national president from 1988 to 1994.<ref name=":1" /> In addition, he was a longstanding member of the United Democratic Front, having attended the launch of the front in Mitchells Plain in August 1983.<ref name=":9" />

By the late 1980s, Langa was a member of the ANC's Constitutional Committee, which was preparing to negotiate a constitutional dispensation for post-apartheid South Africa.<ref name=":9" /> In this capacity, he worked on the party's draft bill of rights, which was ultimately incorporated into Chapter Two of the Constitution of South Africa.<ref>{{cite book|last=Roux|first=Theunis |title=The Politics of Principle: The First South African Constitutional Court, 1995–2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YCcgAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA227|year=2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-32839-6|page=227}}</ref> He also represented the ANC at the negotiations to end apartheid, both during pre-negotiations at Groote Schuur and Pretoria and during formal multi-party talks at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa and Multi-Party Negotiating Forum.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":10" /> After the National Peace Accord was signed, he was appointed to the Police Board, which was tasked with overseeing the South African Police's conduct during the political transition.<ref name=":1" /> During the same period, in January 1994, he was appointed as Senior Counsel.<ref name=":1" />

== Constitutional Court: 1995–2009 == [[File:Constitutional court of South Africa.jpeg|thumb|The Constitutional Court of South Africa, where Langa worked from February 1995 to October 2009]] After the first post-apartheid elections of April 1994, newly elected President Nelson Mandela appointed Langa to the inaugural bench of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, which was newly established under the Interim Constitution.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hatchard |first=John |date=1995 |title=The Constitutional Court of South Africa Delivers its First Judgments |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-law/article/abs/constitutional-court-of-south-africa-delivers-its-first-judgments/4C34360D73D0AEF3BAE437F080A48AB4 |journal=Journal of African Law |language=en |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=232–233 |doi=10.1017/S0021855300006422 |issn=1464-3731|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The bench was sworn in on 14 February 1995.'''<ref name=":52">{{Cite web |last=Drogin |first=Bob |date=1995-02-15 |title=11 Activists Sworn In for New S. African Court |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-02-15-mn-32262-story.html |access-date=2024-02-17 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref>'''

=== Deputy Chief Justice === In August 1997,'''<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date= |title=Chief Justice Pius Langa |url=http://www.constitutionalcourt.org.za/site/judges/justicepiuslanga/index1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010071704/http://www.constitutionalcourt.org.za/site/judges/justicepiuslanga/index1.html |archive-date=2015-10-10 |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=Constitutional Court of South Africa}}</ref>''' President Mandela appointed Langa to succeed Ismail Mohamed as the Deputy President of the Constitutional Court, in which capacity he deputised Justice President Arthur Chaskalson. He held that position until November 2001,'''<ref name=":1" />''' when, under the restructuring of the judiciary occasioned by the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa, he and Chaskalson became Deputy Chief Justice and Chief Justice respectively. According to Justice Johann Kriegler, Langa worked closely with Chaskalson as his "understudy".<ref name=":10" />

=== Chief Justice ===

==== Nomination ==== As Chaskalson's retirement approached, many observers believed it was a foregone conclusion that Justice Dikgang Moseneke (Langa's former colleague at the Bar) would succeed Chaskalson as Chief Justice.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=11 October 2004 |title=Mixed feelings over new Chief Justice |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/mixed-feelings-over-new-chief-justice-223724 |access-date=25 February 2024 |work=IOL}}</ref> However, Langa was also viewed as a frontrunner. Because Chaskalson took leave in late 2004, he was already serving as Acting Chief Justice, and some members of the governing ANC, including Justice Minister Penuell Maduna (Langa's former client) and Deputy Justice Minister Johnny de Lange, apparently preferred Langa's Charterist political background to Moseneke's Black Consciousness history.<ref name=":2" />

In March 2005, President Thabo Mbeki announced that Langa was his preferred candidate for the Chief Justice post.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2005-03-11 |title=Mbeki taps Langa for judge president |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2005-03-11-mbeki-taps-langa-for-judge-president/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> In his interview with the Judicial Service Commission in Cape Town the following month, Langa was asked about racism and demographic transformation in the judiciary; he dismissed reports that he had a "gradualist" approach to demographic transformation, instead describing his approach as "revolutionary".<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2005-04-04 |title=Langa unhappy with rate of transformation |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2005-04-04-langa-unhappy-with-rate-of-transformation/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> The Democratic Alliance, the official opposition, announced after the interview that it would support Langa's appointment.<ref name=":3" /> The appointment was confirmed by Mbeki and he took office as Chief Justice on 1 June 2005,<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 June 2005 |title=Pius Langa 'faces challenges' |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/pius-langa-faces-challenges-20050603 |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}</ref> with Moseneke as his deputy.<ref>{{Cite news |date=31 May 2005 |title=Mbeki appoints new deputy Chief Justice |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/mbeki-appoints-new-deputy-chief-justice-242560 |access-date=25 February 2024 |work=IOL}}</ref>

==== Hlophe controversies ==== Early in his career as Chief Justice, Langa was tasked with mediating the resolution of a major spat in the Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa, where Judge President John Hlophe had come into conflict with several of his colleagues after accusing them of racism.<ref>{{Cite web |date=15 October 2005 |title=Top judge to rule on race row |url=https://www.news24.com/citypress/southafrica/news/top-judge-to-rule-on-race-row-20100614 |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=City Press |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2005-10-19 |title=White flag raised in judicial race war |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2005-10-19-white-flag-raised-in-judicial-race-war/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> Three years later, Hlophe was at the centre of an even larger controversy when Langa, on behalf of the full Constitutional Court bench, laid a complaint against him with the Judicial Service Commission, alleging that he had attempted improperly to influence the justices' opinion in the Constitutional Court matter of ''Thint v National Director of Public Prosecutions''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2008-06-20 |title=Hlophe: The big questions |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2008-06-20-hlophe-the-big-questions/ |access-date=2024-02-04 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> ''Thint'' was a politically sensitive case, involving the search and seizure of the belongings of former Deputy President Jacob Zuma; Langa ultimately wrote on behalf of a majority of the court in finding against Zuma.

As the Judicial Service Commission considered the complaint against Hlophe in subsequent months, Hlophe strongly attacked Langa and Moseneke, accusing them of waging a political campaign against him on behalf of Zuma's opponents.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-07-31 |title=Langa lynched me, says Hlophe |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2009-07-31-langa-lynched-me-says-hlophe/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> Although Langa categorically denied this allegation,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-07-30 |title=Langa: No ulterior motives in Hlophe matter |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2009-07-30-langa-no-ulterior-motives-in-hlophe-matter/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> he was thereafter "regarded with intense suspicion" by some of Hlophe and Zuma's supporters.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-05-29 |title=Zuma's judges dilemma |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2009-05-29-zumas-judges-dilemma/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> In August 2009, Hlophe reportedly told the ''Mail & Guardian'' that he had recently refused to shake Langa's hand, saying, "I am not going to shake a white man's hand."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-08-08 |title='I am not going to shake a white man's hand' |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2009-08-08-i-am-not-going-to-shake-a-white-mans-hand/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-08-14 |title=Langa 'considering his options' over Hlophe comments |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2009-08-14-langa-considering-his-options-over-hlophe-comments/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref>

==== Legacy ==== {{Quote box | quote = Like Graeme Pollock, who seemed to have more time to play his shots than did mere mortals, Pius Langa has the gift of doing everything with deliberation. He is a singularly measured person, never visibly flustered, the Kiplingesque man who doesn't lose his head. He always seems to have time for reflection... In the seemingly interminable readthroughs at the Constitutional Court, when each word, comma and quotation in a draft judgment is debated in full conference, Langa frequently came up with the unanimously acceptable proposal and his own judgments demonstrate how carefully he chooses his words. | author = – Retired Justice Johann Kriegler in August 2005<ref name=":10" /> | align = right | width = 25% | fontsize = 88% }} In mid-2008, in a report strongly denied by the Judicial Service Commission, the ''Times'' reported that the Constitutional Court was in "such a shambles" that it was having difficulty attracting candidates to fill Tholie Madala's judicial seat, partly because of the perception that Langa was a weak leader and unable to defend the judiciary against recent political criticism.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2008-08-26 |title=Constitutional Court is not in disarray, says JSC |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2008-08-26-constitutional-court-is-not-in-disarray-says-jsc/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2008-09-02 |title=Chaskalson backs Constitutional Court |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2008-09-02-chaskalson-backs-constitutional-court/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> His critics said that he "lacked the hard edge" necessary for judicial leadership and that he had allowed politicians to become too powerful in the Judicial Service Commission, which he chaired.<ref name=":8" />

However, Langa was generally admired for his tolerance of dissent in the Constitutional Court and Judicial Service Commission,<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Roux |first=Theunis |date=2015 |title=The Langa Court: Its distinctive character and legacy |url=https://www.jutajournals.co.za/the-langa-court-its-distinctive-character-and-legacy/ |journal=Acta Juridica |language=en-US |volume=2015 |issue=1 |pages=33–74}}</ref> as well as for his "ability to calm troubled waters without raising his voice or taking the offensive".<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |date=2009-08-22 |title=Diplomacy the order of the day |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2009-08-22-diplomacy-the-order-of-day/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> In one description, "Langa's calm demeanour is deceptive. Behind it lies the resolve and moral purpose of a preacher's son."<ref name=":6" /> In another, he was "softly spoken, with a quiet dignity and seriousness of purpose," and "led by moral example rather than by power of intellectual persuasion – which is not to say that he was not persuasive, only that he persuaded in other ways".<ref name=":5" /> The ''Sunday Times'' called him "a conciliator in the same mould as Nelson Mandela".<ref name=":8" /> Langa himself said that his foremost priority as Chief Justice was the stability of the judiciary.<ref name=":6" />

The Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution reflected in 2021 that Langa had led the court "courageously" through "a period of change".<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |last=Naidoo |first=Lawson |date=10 October 2021 |title=Appointing the next Chief Justice: A matter of grave importance |url=https://www.news24.com/citypress/voices/appointing-the-next-chief-justice-a-matter-of-grave-importance-20211010 |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=City Press |language=en-US}}</ref> ''Thint'' was one of a series of cases heard by the Langa court which emanated from the corruption prosecution of Deputy President Zuma and his associate Schabir Shaik, or from broader challenges to the status of the National Prosecuting Authority.<ref name=":5" /> Partly because these "lawfare" cases were often accompanied by populist political attacks on the judiciary, the Langa court operated in difficult political conditions; its dissent rate also increased significantly during Langa's tenure.<ref name=":5" /> In large part Langa was viewed as handling these tensions astutely.<ref name=":5" /> He was also involved in the early stages of establishing the independent Office of the Chief Justice, rather than the Department of Justice, as the hub of the administration of the courts.<ref name=":7" />

=== Jurisprudence === {{See also|List of Constitutional Court opinions of Pius Langa}} Langa's first majority judgment in the Constitutional Court was ''S v Williams'', a 1995 matter which outlawed judicial corporal punishment of juveniles. He also handed down judgment, three years later, in the related matter of ''Christian Education South Africa v Minister of Education'', in which the court dismissed a challenge to a statutory prohibition against corporal punishment in schools.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1999-11-18 |title=Battle for beatings rages on |url=https://mg.co.za/article/1999-11-19-battle-for-beatings-rages-on/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> In other human rights matters, he wrote for the court in ''De Reuck v Director of Public Prosecutions, Witwatersrand Local Division'', on child pornography,<ref>{{Cite news |date=16 October 2003 |title=Court gives child porn a resounding 'no' |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/court-gives-child-porn-a-resounding-no-114776 |access-date=25 February 2024 |work=IOL}}</ref> and in ''MEC for Education, KwaZulu-Natal v Pillay'', on freedom of cultural expression in public schools; the latter also marked the first time that the Constitutional Court considered discrimination as defined by the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2007-10-21 |title=And another one for nose studs |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2007-10-21-and-another-one-for-nose-studs/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> Other notable Constitutional Court judgments written by Langa included several in criminal procedure, including ''Thint'', ''Investigating Directorate: SEO v Hyundai Motors'', and ''Zealand v Minister of Justice''. He was also noted for his dissenting opinion in ''Masiya v Director of Public Prosecutions, Pretoria''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-07-26 |title=Pius Langa: From messenger to legal giant |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2013-07-26-00-pius-langa-from-messenger-to-legal-giant/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref>

Academic Theunis Roux admired Langa's majority judgments in ''Thint'' and ''Glenister v President'' for "taking the political heat" out of sensitive matters without resorting to "a veil of legalism".<ref name=":5" /> However, some commentators criticised his synthesis of the Bill of Rights and customary law in ''Bhe v Magistrate, Khayelitsha'', a landmark case on male primogeniture.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Morudu |first1=Ntebo L |last2=Maimela |first2=Charles |date=2021 |title=The indigenisation of customary law: Creating an indigenous legal pluralism within the South African dispensation: possible or not? |url=http://ref.scielo.org/xtmwwz |journal=De Jure |volume=54 |doi=10.17159/2225-7160/2021/v54a4|hdl=2263/83978 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=van Niekerk |first=G. J. |date=2005 |title=Succession, living indigenous law and ubuntu in the Constitutional Court |url=https://obiter.mandela.ac.za/article/view/14610 |journal=Obiter |volume=26 |issue=3 |doi=10.17159/obiter.v26i3.14610 |issn=2709-555X|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Knoetze |first1=Elmarie |last2=Olivier |first2=Morné |date=2005 |title=To develop or not to develop the customary law: that is the question in Bhe |url=https://obiter.mandela.ac.za/article/view/14812 |journal=Obiter |volume=26 |issue=1 |doi=10.17159/obiter.v26i1.14812 |issn=2709-555X|doi-access=free }}</ref> Extra-curially, he expressed ambivalence towards demands for the "Africanisation" of law, saying, "We are in Africa, we are all very much African. But we happen to be in South Africa and we have a purely South African Constitution."<ref name=":6" />

{{Quote box | quote = The test of our commitment to a culture of rights lies in our ability to respect the rights not only of the weakest, but also of the worst among us... Implicit in the provisions and tone of the Constitution are values of a more mature society, which relies on moral persuasion rather than force; on example rather than coercion... Those who are inclined to kill need to be told why it is wrong. The reason surely must be the principle that the value of human life is inestimable, and it is a value which the State must uphold by example as well. | author = – Langa's opinion in ''S v Makwanyane'' on the abolition of capital punishment, June 1995 | align = right | width = 25% | fontsize = 88% }}

=== International service === In 1998, the Southern African Development Community appointed Langa to chair an inquiry into that year's disputed elections in Lesotho,'''<ref name=":1" />''' and in 2000, Don McKinnon appointed him as the Commonwealth of Nations's Special Envoy to Fiji in the aftermath of the Fijian coup.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1 December 2000 |title=Commonweath appoints SA judge as Fiji envoy |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/world/commonweath-appoints-sa-judge-as-fiji-envoy-54560 |access-date=25 February 2024 |work=IOL}}</ref> In later years, he led a delegation of the International Bar Association on a review of criminal procedure in Cameroon, and he was a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague.'''<ref name=":1" />''' He also remained involved in the Commonwealth's work on democracy and constitutionalism, participating in constitutional review commissions in Sri Lanka, Rwanda, and Tanzania and serving as a member of the Judicial Integrity Group which drafted the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct;'''<ref name=":1" />''' he joked in 2005 that the Commonwealth "seem[ed] to consider my work with the Constitutional Court as spare time".<ref name=":3" />

== Retirement and death: 2009–2013 == Langa retired from the judiciary on 11 October 2009 alongside Justices Yvonne Mokgoro, Kate O'Regan, and Albie Sachs; each had served their full term in the Constitutional Court.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=December 2009 |title=Retirement of CC justices |url=https://www.gcbsa.co.za/law-journals/2009/december/2009-december-vol022-no3-pp04-05.pdf |journal=Advocate |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=4–5}}</ref> Justice Sandile Ngcobo was appointed to succeed Langa as Chief Justice.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-08-06 |title=Zuma looks to Ngcobo as new chief justice |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2009-08-06-zuma-looks-to-ngcobo-as-new-chief-justice/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref>

Langa's most notable public role in his retirement was as chairman of the Press Freedom Commission, which was mandated by Print Media South Africa and the South African National Editors' Forum to conduct an inquiry into the regulation of the press between July 2011 and April 2012.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-07-07 |title=ANC slams Press Freedom Commission |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2011-07-08-anc-slams-press-freedom-commission/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-04-26 |title=Media tribunal rejected, but major press reforms mooted |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2012-04-26-major-press-reforms-mooted/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref>

Langa was admitted to hospital in Durban in April 2013.<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 April 2013 |title=Former chief justice Pius Langa in hospital |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/former-chief-justice-pius-langa-in-hospital-20150429 |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=12 April 2013 |title=Pius Langa doing well, resting in hospital |url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2013-04-12-pius-langa-doing-well-resting-in-hospital/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=Sunday Times |language=en-ZA}}</ref> He returned to hospital in June and died on 24 July 2013 at the Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-07-24 |title=Former chief justice Pius Langa dies |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2013-07-24-former-chief-justice-pius-langa-dies/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> He was granted a special official funeral, which was held on 3 August at Durban City Hall; it was televised and featured a speech by Jacob Zuma, who by then was the President of South Africa.<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 August 2013 |title=Zuma's time to apologise |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/zumas-time-to-apologise-20150429 |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=27 July 2013 |title=Special official funeral for Pius Langa |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/special-official-funeral-for-pius-langa-20130727 |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Honours and awards == Among other honours, Langa received the Gruber Foundation's 2004 Prize for Justice, awarded jointly to him and Chief Justice Chaskalson,'''<ref name=":1" />''' and the General Council of the Bar's 2006 Sydney and Felicia Kentridge Award for service to law in Southern Africa.<ref>{{Cite news |date=24 July 2006 |title=Eksteen elected to chair Bar Council |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/eksteen-elected-to-chair-bar-council-286656 |access-date=25 February 2024 |work=IOL}}</ref> In April 2008, President Mbeki inducted him into the Order of the Baobab, Gold for "his exceptional service in law, constitutional jurisprudence and human rights".<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 April 2008 |title=National Orders April 2008 |url=http://www.info.gov.za/aboutgovt/orders/recipients/2008apr.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907075917/http://www.info.gov.za/aboutgovt/orders/recipients/2008apr.htm |archive-date=2008-09-07 |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=South African Government}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=22 April 2008 |title=Chief justice honoured |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/chief-justice-honoured-20080422 |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}</ref>

He was appointed as an honorary professor in procedural and clinic law at the University of Natal in June 1998, and he served for several years as a distinguished visiting professor at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.'''<ref name=":1" />''' He was the chancellor of the University of Natal from 1998 to 2004 and the first chancellor of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University from 2006 to 2010.'''<ref name=":1" />''' He also received honorary doctorates from the University of South Africa, University of Zululand, University of the Western Cape, University of Cape Town, Rhodes University, Yale University, National University of Ireland, and Northeastern University, among others.'''<ref name=":1" />''' The Pius Langa School of Advocacy, the Pan African Bar Association of South Africa's advocacy training institute in Sandton, is named in his honour.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pius Langa School of Advocacy |url=https://pabasa.co.za/school-of-advocacy/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=PABASA |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Personal life == In 1966, he married Thandekile Beauty Langa ({{Nee|Mncwabe}}).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2 November 2009 |title=Langa pays tribute to wife |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/langa-pays-tribute-to-wife-20091102 |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}</ref> Born in 1944 in Pietermaritzburg, Mncwabe was a nurse by training.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=5 September 2009 |title=Chief Justice's wife laid to rest |url=https://www.news24.com/news24/chief-justices-wife-laid-to-rest-20150429 |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=News24 |language=en-US}}</ref> After a long illness with Parkinson's disease, she died in hospital on 30 August 2009, shortly before Langa's retirement.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-08-31 |title=Chief Justice Langa's wife dies after long illness |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2009-08-31-chief-justice-langas-wife-dies-after-long-illness/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}}</ref> The couple had six children, four sons and two daughters;'''<ref name=":1" />''' their eldest son, Vusi, died in a car accident in 2004.<ref name=":9" />

While serving as Chief Justice, Langa himself was briefly hospitalised after a car accident near his home in Houghton, Johannesburg in March 2007.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1 April 2007 |title=Chief justice injured in car accident |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/chief-justice-injured-in-car-accident-321258 |access-date=25 February 2024 |work=IOL}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

== Further reading == {{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}} *{{Cite journal |date=2014 |title=Tribute to the Late Chief Justice Pius Langa |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19962126.2014.11865106 |journal=South African Journal on Human Rights |language=en |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=211–213 |doi=10.1080/19962126.2014.11865106 |issn=0258-7203|url-access=subscription }} *{{Cite web |last=De Vos |first=Pierre |author-link=Pierre de Vos|date=2013-07-24 |title=Pius Langa: A man who knew the meaning of change |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2013-07-25-pius-langa-a-man-who-knew-the-meaning-of-change/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=Daily Maverick |language=en}} *{{Cite web |last=Grootes |first=Stephen |date=2013-07-24 |title=Pius Langa: the man may be gone, but his spirit will remain with us |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-07-25-pius-langa-the-man-may-be-gone-but-his-spirit-will-remain-with-us/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=Daily Maverick |language=en}} *{{Cite web |last=Kings |first=Sipho |date=2013-07-26 |title=Langa: A sober, kind and humble revolutionary |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2013-07-26-00-a-sober-kind-and-humble-revolutionary/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Mail & Guardian |language=en-ZA}} *{{Cite web |last=Manyathi-Jele |first=Nomfundo |date=2013-09-01 |title=Legal profession pays tribute to Justice Langa |url=https://www.derebus.org.za/legal-profession-pays-tribute-justice-langa/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=De Rebus |language=en-US}} *{{Cite journal |last=Moseneke|first=Dikgang|author-link=Dikgang Moseneke|date=December 2013 |title=Public power on behalf of the people: The late Justice Pius Nkonzo Langa, former Chief Justice of South Africa |url=https://gcbsa.co.za/law-journals/2013/december/2013-december-vol026-no3-pp27-28.pdf|journal=Advocate |language=en |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=27–28}} *{{Cite web |last=Msomi |first=S'Thembiso |date=1 August 2013 |title=A man who would not bend |url=https://www.timeslive.co.za/ideas/2013-08-01-a-man-who-would-not-bend/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=Sunday Times |language=en-ZA}} *{{Cite book |last1=Price |first1=Alistair |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0-ZAjgEACAAJ |title=A Transformative Justice: Essays in Honour of Pius Langa |last2=Bishop |first2=Michael |date=2015 |publisher=Juta |isbn=978-1-4851-0876-4 |language=en}} *{{Cite news |last=Rabkin |first=Franny |date=25 July 2013 |title=Justice Pius Nkonzo Langa: a tribute |url=https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2013-07-25-justice-pius-nkonzo-langa-a-tribute/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |work=Business Day |language=en-ZA}} {{refend}}

==External links== {{wikisource|works=or|wislink=Pius Langa|title=Pius Langa}} *[https://ourconstitution.wethepeoplesa.org/justice-pius-langa/ Justice Pius Langa] at Our Constitution *[https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/pius-nkonzo-langa Pius Nkonzo Langa] at South African History Online *[https://web.archive.org/web/20081203212020/http://www.constitutionalcourt.org.za/site/judges/transcripts/piusnkonzolanga.html First interview] with the Judicial Service Commission (6 October 1994) *[https://web.archive.org/web/20081203204920/http://www.constitutionalcourt.org.za/site/judges/transcripts/piusnkonzolanga1.html Second interview] with the Judicial Service Commission (4 April 2005) *[http://www.fljs.org/content/transformative-constitutionalism-and-socio-economic-rights-part-12 Lecture on "Transformative Constitutionalism and Socio-Economic Rights"] at Foundation for Law, Justice and Society (2008)

{{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{s-bef|before=Arthur Chaskalson}} {{s-ttl|title=Chief Justice of South Africa|years=2005&ndash;2009}} {{s-aft|after=Sandile Ngcobo}} {{s-bef|before=Office established}} {{s-ttl|title=Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa|years=2001&ndash;2005}} {{s-aft|after=Dikgang Moseneke}}

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{{Constitutional Court of South Africa}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Langa, Pius}} Category:1939 births Category:2013 deaths Category:20th-century South African judges Category:20th-century South African lawyers Category:21st-century South African judges Category:Chief justices of South Africa Category:Judges of the Constitutional Court of South Africa Category:People from Bushbuckridge Category:Recipients of the Order of the Baobab Category:South African Senior Counsel Category:University of South Africa alumni Category:Zulu people