One of the Chief Justices of the Constitutional Court was Pius Langa.
Pius Langa was born in 1939 in Bushbuckridge, a town in what is now the province of Mpumalanga.
Pius received a bursary at the age of 14. However, he was forced to leave school to look for work because his family needed the money.
It was not easy finding work in apartheid South Africa, but in 1957 he eventually got a job at a factory that made shirts. Three years later, he found a job as an interpreter and a messenger in the Department of Justice.
While working there, Pius studied privately. He passed matric in 1960. Then it took him another 10 years to study law and to graduate with two law degrees. During this time, he did various jobs in the Department of Justice and also became a magistrate.
In 1976, Pius left the Department of Justice and started practising law in Durban the next year. A large part of Pius’s work focused on serving the community. He was a member of the ANC and was involved in anti-apartheid actions.
In 1994, Pius was appointed as one of the 11 judges of the new Constitutional Court. In 2005, he was appointed as Chief Justice and head of the Constitutional Court, until he retired in 2009.
(Based on information from: www.constitutionalcourt.co.za and www.gov.za)
!!! Activity Time !!!
In your SS Workbook, write a paragraph summarizing the good that Pius Langa achieved.