Former Chief Justice, Pius Langa dies
Former chief justice Pius Langa died on Wednesday morning at the age of 74, his family said.
Former chief justice Pius Langa died on Wednesday morning at the age of 74, his family said.
"The former Chief Justice of South Africa, Justice Pius Langa, died this morning at the Milpark Hospital, Johannesburg," his brother Mandla said in a statement.
He had been in hospital for about a month due a long illness. He retired in 2009 and went on to chair the Press Freedom Commission, which looked into the regulation of the print media in South Africa.
About Pius Langa
Pius Nkonzo Langa was born on the 25 March 1939 in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, South Africa.
He was previously Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa after being appointed to the bench in 1994 by Nelson Mandela. He became Deputy Chief Justice in 2001 and was elevated as Chief Justice in 2005 by Thabo Mbeki. He retired in October 2009.
He obtained his B Juris from the University of South Africa in 1973 and his LLB in 1976. He 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 was admitted as an Advocate of the Supreme Court of South Africa in June 1977, practised at the Natal Bar and attained the rank of Senior Counsel in January 1994.
He was a founding member of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers and a member of the African National Congress Constitutional Committee, where he worked on its draft Bill of Rights.
