Judge pius langa biography of rory

South African lawyer and judge (1939–2013)

Pius Nkonzo LangaSCOB (25 March 1939 – 24 July 2013) was Chief Justice of South Africa from June 2005 to October 2009.

Formerly a human rights lawyer, he was appointed as a puisne judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa upon its inception in 1995.

Judge pius langa biography of rory

He was the Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa from November 2001 until May 2005, when President Thabo Mbeki elevated him to the Chief Justiceship. He was South Africa's first black African Chief Justice.

The son of a Zulu pastor, Langa left school as a teenager to enter the workforce.

Over the next two decades, he studied for his matric certificate while working in a clothing factory and then studied for his legal qualifications while working as a civil servant in the Department of Justice. He left the civil service at the rank of magistrate in 1977, when he was admitted as an advocate.

Thereafter he practised law in Durban, specialising in the defence of anti-apar