By Bhekisisa Mncube
Durban - The lateformer Chief Justice Langa was not only an encyclopaedia of the legal system, but also a person who had experienced the suffering of the ordinary men and women, Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Jeff Radebe said today.
Radebe hailed Justice Langa “as a true embodiment of a South African patriot, and said many patriots are defined by how they make the enemy surrender in a theatre of war, but Justice Langa did so in the theatre of the legal profession”.
Radebe was speaking at the memorial service of the late Justice Langa held in Durban City Hall on Thursday. The memorial service was attended by South African imminent jurists, political heavyweights, the family, friends and ordinary people.
Radebe told the Langa family: “You will appreciate that to give comfort through a speech to the family is not an appropriate palliative to sooth their pain.”
The late former Chief Justice Pius Nkonzo Langa was born in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, on 25 March 1939. Born the second of seven children, Langa “was born into a family of moral fibre, with his father being a member of the clergy,” Radebe said.
Justice Langa, according to Radebe, pulled himself through an arduous journey of distance education, climbing from the lowest ranks of the judiciary to the highest.
Radebe said Langa described his own journey as the “miracles of scholarship aid”. He said Langa did not only become the highest judge in the land, but also of the highest court in the judicial system.
“This is a major achievement for a man who fought his way through the ranks of the judicial system. Thirty-five years from shirt-maker to a court clerk-cum-messenger to the Chief Justice is the triumph of the human spirit over adversity,” he said.
When the Constitutional Court was established, Langa was appointed with 10 others as the first judges of the new court. 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 the country’s Chief Justice and Head of the Constitutional Court with effect from June 2005. He retired in October 2009.
Radebe said he was happy in the knowledge that his contributions will be emulated by many who worked with him and who saw the true dedication of a South African patriot.
The minister said Justice Langa also assisted other states to fine-tune their own Constitutions “when he sat at the Constitutional Review Committee of Zimbabwe, in Rwanda, Tanzania and as Commonwealth Envoy to the democratization of the Island of Fiji, playing a role in the Lesotho elections for the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), as a member of the police board on the transformation of the police, as a member of the review of health legislation, and the list is endless”.
In his seminal judgement, when he ruled against capital punishment, Radebe said Langa “equated the culture of rights as extending not only to the weakest amongst us but also the worst amongst us”.
Radebe said Langa used the Constitution as the barometer for his assertions, confirming that society’s own morality was guarded by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. – SAnews.gov.za
