Eulogy by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, on the occasion of the special Provincial Official Funeral of Judge Sangoni
Umtata, Eastern Cape
21 June 2025
Programme director
Members of the Sangoni family
Minister Stella Ndabeni
Deputy Ministers that are present
Acting Deputy Chief Justice Madlanga
Mayors who are present
Judge Dumisa Ntsebeza
Advocate Marumo Moarane
Ladies and gentlemen
Good afternoon
I feel humbled to stand here today to say a farewell to a distinguished jurist and a patriot who has contributed immensely to the development of jurisprudence in our country.
We are here to join you as a family and the community at large, to pay tribute to Judge Sangoni and to convey to you our sincere condolences at the loss to you of a father, grandfather, brother, friend and a great human being.
We are here to pay tribute to an individual who amongst others was part of the men and women who were the midwives of not only our constitutional democracy but also our judiciary.
Yesterday we were celebrating the thirty-year anniversary since the establishment of the Constitutional Court which is the highest court in the land. As part of the celebration we were honouring the commitment and courage of the countless individuals and organizations that have fought tirelessly to uphold the values of equality, dignity, and freedom of whom former Judge President Sangoni was one.
At the inauguration of the Constitutional Court 30 years ago, the first democratic President of democratic South Africa, Tata Nelson Mandela, said the following:
"People come and people go. Customs, fashions, and preferences change. Yet the web of fundamental rights and justice which a nation proclaims, must not be broken. It is the task of this court to ensure that the values of freedom and equality which underlie our interim constitution - and which will surely be embodied in our final constitution - are nurtured and protected so that they may endure."
Turning to the jurists, he further added: "We expect you to stand on guard not only against direct assault on the principles of the constitution, but against insidious corrosion. Attacks on the basic rights of the people are invariably couched in innocent language."
With these words Tata Mandela was at once celebrating the triumph of struggle for freedom over apartheid and the need for eternal vigilance against anti-constitutionalism as a price we have to pay to create a democratic South Africa that we have been hard at work trying to build for the past thirty years.
For Judge Sangoni, whom we are laying to rest today, who lived and witnessed the brutality of apartheid and the then security branch, these words by Tata Madiba represented a crowning achievement of the resilience of the human spirit in the fight against injustice and oppression.
Judge Sangoni was born and raised in a South Africa that was under a system of colonial domination in which majority black people had been oppressed by white minority for centuries.
Despite the many setbacks and defeats suffered by African people, the tradition of resistance which remained strong formed part of his consciousness. It is this consciousness that defined the life which he later lived, placing his skills and training as a legal practitioner at the disposal of those whose right to exist in the country of their birth was threatened.
He lived a life of an individual who was driven by a firm belief that injustice must never go unchallenged regardless of who it affects.
Reflecting on why it is important for people to find a purpose in their lives, Reverend AL Sharpton made some important observations. He said: "Everybody needs to answer the call of their life, otherwise your life has no meaning…The only thing that will matter two minutes after you are gone is what you have done for more than yourself. What did you stand for? What was your purpose?"
He emphasized the importance of always asking ourselves these questions: "Am I fighting the right fight? What am I here for?"
We are proud to stand here today with the knowledge that the man whose remains we are laying to rest today, while he lived, did plenty for more than himself. In a country that was not morally neutral, he chose to stand on the side of good. In a country that was divided between the oppressor and the oppressed, he chose to stand on the side of the oppressed.
As a human rights lawyer, he challenged human rights violations such as detentions without trial, beatings and torture, banishments and banning orders. He waged spirited defence of political activists who were harassed in all manner of ways by the illegitimate apartheid state and its surrogates. The firm he founded was indeed a nerve centre for activism.
Amongst many others, some of the high-profile cases his firm handled included the defence of Pumzile Mayaphi and Ndibulele Ndzamela, MK combatants who were charged with the bombing of the Wild Coast Sun in Mbizana.
He defended a group of PAC activists which included Simuku, Kantolo, Nowalala and others. He offered his services to Fikile Gwadana and Mzwabantu Dapula who were charged with bombing Fred Petit Square in Komani to commemorate the adoption of the Freedom Charter in 1986 and were sent to Robben Island for lengthy sentences, and later won their freedom on appeal after serving for a year.
He also defended a group of activists from Komani who included the current President of the ANCWL Nokuzola Sisisi Tolashe and many others. He participated in high-risk activities that entailed legal defence during the day and logistics in moving weapons during the night. The spread of the cases stretched from student activists in schools, universities and colleges to armed combatants across the liberation movement.
I have also been advised that during his days as a human rights lawyer in Butterworth, Judge President Sangoni assisted the family of the late Umkhonto Wesizwe cadre Sthembele Zokhwe to enlist the services of a forensic expert, Dr David Klatzow.
The then notorious Transkei Security Branch members under the Matanzima government had shot Sthembele in Mthatha in 1987 but he survived that attempt on his life. However, in January 1988, the same police abducted him from a hair salon in Butterworth, took him to his home in Ngqamakhwe where they shot him several times and staged a scene to make it look like they shot him while trying to throw a hand grenade at them.
With the help of a forensic report from Dr Klatzow organised by Judge President Sangoni, the authorities reconstructed the scene that disproved their concocted version.
In 2005, the security police were convicted and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in what became the second TRC case to be successfully prosecuted by Adv Mthunzi Mhaga of the National Prosecuting Authority.
Pre- and post-democracy, Judge Sangoni was also dedicated to building capacity in the legal profession. He led a firm that trained legal practitioners who went on to be distinguished jurists serving at different levels of practice and public and corporate legal service.
The firm’s training programme also included women at a time when the training of women attorneys was not usual, which was a demonstration of how far ahead of his time Judge Sangoni was.
As a pioneer of transformation, he anticipated the Legal Sector Code which has been introduced to accelerate transformation in the legal sector. By giving work to black advocates throughout South Africa and by ensuring that seniors (silks) sourced from all over the country were made to work with juniors even where they would have preferred to choose their juniors, was an act of transformation whose impact cannot be understated.
Having played so huge a role in helping to advance the struggle for the liberation of South Africa, when the time came to serve the country as a judge and judge president he never hesitated.
He was appointed to the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court of South Africa on 1 December 2003 with the Bhisho Court being his headquarters. On 1 May 2010, he was appointed to the high position of Judge President of the Division and served in that capacity for over seven years, retiring in August 2017. He served as a judge for just over 15 years.
As a senior traditional leader, he never abdicated his responsibility to preserve our people's sense of identity, heritage and history. He gave generously of his time to the affairs of the Qokolweni-Zimbane community even when his work kept him for extended periods away from the area of his birth and leadership.
As we bid farewell to Judge Sangoni, let us pay tribute to a man who lived his life in the service of humanity. The words of Martin Luther King Jr give an apt description of how Judge Sangoni lived his life when he said: "Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in."
Indeed, Judge Sangoni made a better person of himself, a greater nation of his country, and a finer world for all of us to live in. For this and his many good deeds, our country owes Judge Sangoni a huge debt of gratitude.
Rest in peace
Lala ngo xolo
Robala ka khotso
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