Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma will deliver the eulogy at the funeral of the late former Chief Justice Pius Langa, the Presidency said.
Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe will address the memorial service on behalf of government. Langa, who died last week, will be buried on Saturday after a service at the Durban City Hall. A memorial service will be held on Thursday.
Zuma has declared a Special Official Funeral for the former Chief Justice, who has been descried as popular and highly regarded legal eagle, who distinguished himself during the struggle for liberation.
“Langa comes from a family of respected activists, who distinguished themselves in various ways as well to the struggle for freedom. These include literary giant Mandla Langa and South Africa's ambassador to the People's Republic of China, Dr Bheki Langa and their younger brother the late Ben Langa, who was tragically killed in Pietermaritzburg during the 1980s.”
The Presidency said Langa was one of the country's finest legal minds. He was a founding member of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADEL), an affiliate of the United Democratic Front (UDF), and played an active role in the struggle against apartheid. He was involved in the work of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) and was a member of the Constitutional Committee of the African National Congress.
He was appointed to the then newly-established Constitutional Court of South Africa at the advent of a post-apartheid constitutional and democratic order in 1994, as one of its first judges. He became its Deputy President in August 1997 and, in November 2001, assumed the position of Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa.
He was appointed as the country's Chief Justice, the Chairperson of the Judicial Service Commission and Head of the Constitutional Court, with effect from June 2005 until his retirement in October 2009. – SAnews.gov.za
