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Personal details
Pius Nkonzo Langa was born in the Eastern Transvaal on 25 March 1939. He is married to Thandekile and they have six children.
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Education
Langa matriculated through private study in 1960. He obtained his B Iuris from the University of South Africa in 1973 and his LLB in 1976.
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Professional history
Langa worked in a shirt factory from 1957 to 1960 but then found employment as an interpreter and messenger for the Department of Justice. He worked his way up to serving as a prosecutor and a magistrate.
He 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 dominated. He appeared in most of the more significant political trials - mostly in Natal, the Eastern Cape and Cape Town.
His practice reflected the struggle against apartheid: his clientele included the underprivileged, civic bodies, trade unions and people charged under security legislation.
Langa was a member of the Democratic Lawyers Association and served on its executive. In 1987 he served on the steering committee that preceded the formation of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (Nadel); he became a founder member of Nadel and served as its president from 1988 until his resignation in 1994.
Langa was appointed a Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa in October 1994, became Deputy President of the Court in August 1997 and was appointed Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa in November 2001.
He has been awarded honorary Doctor of Laws degrees by the University of Zululand, the University of the Western Cape and the University of Cape Town. He was appointed honorary professor in the department of procedural and criminal law at the University of Natal in June 1998 and has served as the distinguished visiting professor at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, in the United States. In October 1998 he was installed as the chancellor of the University of Natal.
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Other activities
Law bodies
Langa has served on the boards of and as a trustee of various legal institutions, such as the Community Legal Services Unit, the Centre for Development Studies, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, the Legal Resources Trust and the University of Natal's Centre for Socio-legal Studies. He was centrally involved in the founding of the South African Legal Defence Fund.
He served as a commissioner of the Human Rights Commission for several years and attended, participated in and organised conferences, workshops and seminars on human rights issues in South Africa and abroad.
Political activities
Langa served in the United Democratic Front. He was involved in the work of the Convention for a Democratic South Africa and its successor, the Multiparty Negotiations Forum.
He was a founder member of the Release Mandela Committee (Natal) and served in the committees formed to accelerate and prepare for the release of political prisoners.
He was also a member of the constitutional committee of the African National Congress and was part of the advisor group during the Groote Schuur and Pretoria "talks-about-talks".
He also:
- was a member of the board tasked with helping the transformation of the police services in terms of the National Peace Accord;
- chaired the technical committee to review and rationalise health legislation;
- served as a member of the Commission of Inquiry into Unrest in Prisons; and
- was a member of the Commission of Inquiry into the Meiring Report.
In 1998 he was appointed chairperson of the Langa Commission, which investigated the Lesotho elections on behalf of the Southern African Development and Economic Community.
In 2000 he was appointed the Commonwealth's special envoy to assist the Fiji Islands' return to democracy. He has participated in constitutional review commissions in Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Tanzania, and has taken part in conferences and workshops in a number of countries. He is a member of the Judicial Integrity Group, responsible for the drafting of the Bangalore Principles for Judicial Ethics.
Community activities
Langa has always been involved in attempts to improve the quality of life of his fellow South Africans. He has helped organise civic organisations and townships residents' associations, and has given guidance to youth and recreational clubs.
He still serves as a trustee of the Clermont Women's Organisation. He was a trustee and the chairperson of the Henk van Andel Bursary Trust, served as a trustee in the Fundani Trust and was the chairperson of the Phambili School Interim Committee.
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