Parliament’s Presiding Officers, Members and officials extend condolences on the death, this morning, of former Chief Justice, Pius Langa.
Justice Langa rose from modest beginnings – as a worker in a shirt factory, interpreter and messenger for the Department of Justice in the 1950s and 1960s - to obtain a B Juris in 1973, his LLB in 1976 and admission as an advocate of the Supreme Court of South Africa in 1977.
He was a founder of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADEL) and a member of the African National Congress Constitutional Committee in which he worked on the draft Bill of Rights.
Former President Nelson Mandela appointed him to the Bench in 1994 and, when the Constitutional Court was established, Justice Langa was one of those appointed as judges of the new court.
In 1997 he became Deputy President of the Constitutional Court, Deputy Chief Justice in 2001 and Chief Justice from 2005 to his retirement in October 2009.
Justice Langa contributed significantly to our struggle for a non-racial South Africa and the establishment of a constitutional democracy where human rights are protected.
This contribution our government recognised in 2008 when he was awarded the Order of the Baobab in gold for his exceptional service to law, constitutional jurisprudence and human rights.
Our thoughts are with Justice Langa’s family and friends at this time and we extend our sympathies to them.
