DURBAN - “The life times and the legacy of Justice Pius Langa. He represented the best the human condition offered us. As a human being, he was decent and exceedingly humble. As a lawyer and judge, he was the epitome of legal excellence.”
These are some of the heart-warming remarks by Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu who addressed the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (Nadel) which had hosted an event in Gqeberha remembering the late chief justice.
Sisulu told the gathering that Justice Langa’s life should serve as a gold standard for future appointments to the highest courts.
“We remember Judge Langa as a beacon of everything we aspired to. He and his generation have played their role and to them, we are duly indebted. Men of integrity who were moulded in the struggle and who overcame serious challenges.
“When Judge Langa passed away and we went to Durban to bury him, that was the first time the ANC had the courage to apologise to him and his family for the death of his brother. It would have been so much lighter on us if that apology was given when he lived. But he never showed any anger over this unfortunate incident of his brother who died in exile, falsely accused. I am glad that the ANC apologised and cleared his name.
“Judge Langa was a man of outstanding stature, measured in the way he spoke, put across his views, the rationality of his arguments, even-tempered, and a man who was forthright and incorruptible. He optimised everything we wanted in a judge. He was compassionate and made us proud of the calibre of persons we had as chief justices.”
Sisulu recalled the role played by many lawyers who had devoted their time and challenged the oppressive apartheid government in South Africa.
“Throughout the period of the struggle, our support against the heinous brutality of apartheid lay in the hands of our struggle lawyers. On their shoulders lay not only the responsibility of defending us but also the burden of going for months without pay. They were not just struggling lawyers.
“Because of their legal support to us they were targeted by the apartheid regime and their lives were in constant danger. Understanding their importance in defending us the ANC in exile had to prioritise payment of legal fees. That is how I believe the Defence Aid Fund was established in London. But even those payments if they were made at all, were always late, we could not survive without them.”
She also mentioned that: “The progressive legal fraternity was effectively another arm of the struggle, there to defend us against the most atrocious repression by the apartheid regime.”
Langa was the chief justice and the head of the constitutional court of South Africa. Justice Langa died on July 24, 2013, at age 74 after a long illness. He was a founder member and president of Nadel.
Daily News