The Office of the Chief Justice has described outgoing acting Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Mbuyiseli Madlanga as an outstanding, formidable, and selfless judge.
Madlanga will hang up his robes this month, marking the end of a judicial career that has spanned 17 years.
A special ceremonial session of the Constitutional Court to mark the retirement of Madlanga will take place at the Constitutional Court on Thursday at 10am.
Chief Justice Mandisa Maya will lead the proceedings of the special ceremonial session, which will be attended by the Justices of the Constitutional Court, the Heads of Superior Courts, the leadership of the Magistracy, Judicial Officers as well as representatives of the executive, parliament and the legal profession.
Humble beginnings
Madlanga was born and raised in the rural village of Njijini, 16 kilometres outside the small town of Mount Frere, Eastern Cape Province.
He is married to Mrs Nosisi Madlanga (born Nkenkana). He matriculated at Mariazell High School, Matatiele, and obtained his BJuris degree at the University of Transkei (Unitra). In 1981, whilst studying towards the BJuris degree, he was awarded the Juta Prize for being the best law student. He enrolled for the LLB degree at Rhodes University. In his final year he was appointed tutor, tasked with tutoring first year law students.
After graduating, he lectured part-time in the Law Faculty of University of Transeki (Unitra) whilst working for the Department of Justice towards fulfilling his contractual obligations under a government bursary that had funded his LLB studies. He later lectured full-time at Unitra for two years. He furthered his studies and completed his LLM degree in Human Rights and Constitutional Law, cum laude, at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, the United States of America.
Madlanga interned at the Washington DC office of Amnesty International. On his return to South Africa, he completed pupillage at the Johannesburg Bar, after which he practised at the Mthatha Bar.
Rising through the ranks
In 1996, at the age of 34, he was appointed as a Judge of the Mthatha High Court, becoming South Africa’s youngest Judge at the time.
Within just three years of this appointment, he was appointed Acting Judge of Appeal at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.
He was then appointed, this time on a permanent basis, as a Judge of Appeal in the Competition Appeal Court. He continued acting on the Supreme Court of Appeal Bench because the Competition Appeal Court was new and was yet to commence functioning.
His acting appointment at the Supreme Court of Appeal, which was for a year, was cut short as he was then appointed to act as the Judge President of the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court. Whilst holding that position, he received yet another appointment in 2000 as an acting justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Personal circumstances forced him to resign from the Judiciary in 2001.
He returned to the Bar as senior counsel, practising in Mthatha and Johannesburg. His practice took off immediately, and he appeared in virtually all the divisions of the High Court, the Supreme Court of Appeal, and the Constitutional Court. Notably, he received a brief to represent the Republic of South Africa at the International Court of Justice at The Hague (Den Haag) in the Netherlands. This was in the case of the “Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
Another assignment of note that he received was his appointment by Mr Trevor Manuel, the then Minister of Finance, as the Chairperson (which, in terms of the applicable legislation, was an executive position) of the Exchange Control Amnesty Unit in 2003. This unit did not only grant amnesty to people who had contravened Exchange Control Regulations (Regulations) in expatriating their assets, it also facilitated the disclosure of assets worth R68.6-billion, 70% of which had been taken out of the country in contravention of the Regulations. The process also raised R2.9-billion in levies. The disclosure of offshore assets resulted in an estimated R1.4 billion increase in the tax base.
In 2003, Madlanga was appointed by the President of the Republic as a member of the Competition Tribunal for five years, which was renewed for another five years. He served in the Tribunal for nine years, being its Deputy Chairperson during the last three years. As a nominee of the Advocates for Transformation component of the General Council of the Bar, the President of the Republic appointed him as a member of the Judicial Service Commission, a position he held between 2010 and 2012.
Yet another assignment worth particular mention was Justice Madlanga’s appointment as the Chief Evidence Leader of the Marikana Commission of Enquiry in 2012. This Commission of Enquiry was appointed to enquire into the killings of 34 striking mine workers and 10 other people in Marikana, near Rustenburg, North West Province, in August 2012. In that capacity he was lead counsel in a team of seven advocates, three of whom (including him) were senior counsel. He left the Commission just before, in 2013.
He was then appointed as a Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa with effect from 1 August 2013.
Visiting professorship
At the invitation of the law school of his alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, he held the prestigious Clynes Chair as a visiting professor. This chair is reserved for distinguished US and international legal scholars, and amongst those who have held it are US Supreme Court Justices. In that capacity he offered a two-credit, three-week course from 4 April 2016. The Walter Sisulu University awarded him a Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree (honoris causa) at the graduation ceremony of 13 May 2016.
In 2018, he was a visiting professor at Walter Sisulu University and the University of Fort Hare. In recognition of his distinguished judicial career and significant contribution to developing South Africa’s jurisprudence, Rhodes University honoured Justice Madlanga with an honorary degree, Doctor of Laws (LLD) (honoris causa), at its 2023 graduation ceremonies on 30 March 2023.
On 31 March 2017, Justice Madlanga was appointed as the inaugural editor-in-chief of the South African Judicial Education Journal, a journal that was launched in April 2018 and published under the auspices of the South African Judicial Education Institute, a statutory body with the mandate of providing continuing education to the judiciary. That journal is now accredited. He has been a member of the editorial board of the South African Law Journal.
Between 2017 and 2020, Justice Madlanga served as a member of the Advisory Boards of De Jure, the South African Law Journal, and the Yearbook of South African Law.
Life away from the Bench
Justice Madlanga goes on retirement, and he will take on a new assignment of being the chairperson of the judicial commission of inquiry into criminality, political interference, and corruption in the criminal justice system.
President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Madlanga as chairperson of this judicial commission of inquiry on July 13, following allegations by KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi that there is a syndicate operating in Gauteng that involves members of parliament, police officers, metro police officers, correctional service officers, prosecutors, magistrates, and judges, who are all controlled by drug cartels and business people.
“It seems retirement, in the true sense, eludes Justice Madlanga for now. Nonetheless, the South African Judiciary takes this opportunity to wish Acting Deputy Chief Justice Madlanga, a truly outstanding jurist and formidable lawyer, well as he takes leave from active judicial service. We salute him for an exceptional career and (continuing) selfless service to the nation!,” said the Office of the Chief Justice.
