Judge pius langa biography

Pius Nkonzo Langa SCOB was Chief Justice of South Africa from June 2005 to October 2009.
Pius Nkonzo Langa SCOB (25 March 1939 – 24 July 2013) was Chief Justice of South Africa from June 2005 to October 2009.
Born in Bushbuckridge in South Africa on 25 March 1939, Pius Nkonzo Langa, the second of seven children born to deeply devout parents, completed his high.

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Langa was a public servant ‘in the highest sense’

Pius Nkonzo Langa died on Wednesday in a Johannesburg hospital after a long illness. He was 74. Langa was South Africa’s fourth post-apartheid chief justice (after Michael Corbett, Ismail Mahomed and Arthur Chaskalson).

Born in Bushbuckbridge on March 5 1939, he matriculated in 1960 by private study. He had worked in a shirt factory to make this possible. He obtained his law degrees the hard way, by external study through the University of South Africa, in 1973 and 1976, while supporting his family, to whom he was devoted.

Langa’s experience of the legal system was unrivalled. He served, successively, as court interpreter, public prosecutor and magistrate (1960-1977); advocate (1977-1994); judge and deputy president of the Constitutional Court (1994-2001); deputy chief justice (2001-2005); and chief justice (2005-2009).

When he took silk shortly before his elevation in 1994, he was one of only four African practitioners at the Natal Bar.

To the office of chief justice, Langa brought his self-effacing

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The Order of the Baobab in Gold

Pius Nkonzo Langa (1939 - ) Awarded for:

His exceptional service in law, constitutional jurisprudence and human rights.

Profile of Pius Nkonzo Langa

Pius Nkonzo Langa was born in the then Eastern Transvaal on 25 March 1939. Hard-working and committed to learning, he matriculated through private studies in 1960. He obtained his B Juris from the University of South Africa in 1973 and his LLB in 1976. He worked in a shirt factory from 1957 to 1960 but then found employment as an interpreter and messenger for the Department ofJustice. He worked his way up to serving as a prosecutor and a magistrate.

Langa resigned from the department in April 1977 and was admitted as an advocate of the Supreme Court in Natal in June 1977. He practised at the Durban Bar and became senior counsel in January 1994.

He took on civil and criminal matters, but political trials were always within his sights in the light of the injustices embedded in the South African political system. He appeared in most of the more significant political trials – mostly in Natal, the

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Pius Nkonzo Langa

Pius Nkonzo Langa was born in Bushbuckridge in the eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga), South Africa, on 25 March 1939, the second of seven children. In 1957, he went to work at a shirtmaking factory until 1960. During this period he enrolled for his high school education which he financed through private means matriculating in 1960. Langa then found employment as a messenger of court and interpreter for the Department of Justice. Langa married Thandekile Mncwabe in 1966 and the couple had six children.

Langa enrolled at the University of South Africa (UNISA) for studies in law through correspondence. He successfully completed a B Iuris in 1973 and three years later completed his LLB degree. Through sheer hard work Langa rose to become a prosecutor and later a magistrate. In 1977, he resigned from the Department of Justice, and in June of that year was admitted as an Advocate of the Supreme Court in Natal.

During this period, Langa took on various civil and criminal cases. Inevitably, he came across political cases involving anti-Apartheid activists, and repr