Johannesburg – Acting Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga will hang up his robes at the end of this month, marking the end of a judicial career that has spanned 17 years on the bench.
Justice 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).
Madlanga matriculated at Mariazell High School, Matatiele, Eastern Cape, and obtained his BJuris degree at the University of Transkei (Unitra).
In 1981, while studying towards the BJuris degree, he was awarded the Juta Prize for being the best law student.
Madlanga 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 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 the United States of America.
He interned at the Washington, D.C. 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.
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 only 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 permanently, as a Judge of Appeal in the Competition Appeal Court.
Madlanga continued acting on the Supreme Court of Appeal Bench because the Competition Appeal Court was new and had not yet begun 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.
While holding that position, Madlanga received yet another appointment in 2000 as an Acting Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.
However, personal circumstances forced him to resign from the Judiciary in 2001.
Madlanga returned to the Bar as senior counsel, practising in Mthatha and Johannesburg.
Madlanga’s practice took off, and he often appeared in all the Divisions of the High Court, the Supreme Court of Appeal, and the Constitutional Court.
Notably, Madlanga 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 important assignment for Madlanga was his 2003 appointment by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel as Chairperson of the Exchange Control Amnesty Unit.
This unit granted amnesty to individuals 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.
On completion of its task in 2008, Deputy Minister of Finance Jabu Moleketi said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Amnesty Unit for their sterling work.
“When the unit was initially announced, we did not anticipate the huge task that they would be faced with, both in the number of applications received and the associated logistics.
“It is through the exceptional efforts and meticulous approach of our Unit that other countries now seek to use our amnesty as an international benchmark.
“I wish to specifically thank the chairperson, Advocate Mbuyiseli Madlanga, who has led the Amnesty Unit impeccably and with great enthusiasm.”
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.
Madlanga 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 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, Madlanga was lead counsel in a team of seven advocates, three of whom (including him) were senior counsel.
Madlanga left the Commission in 2013.
He was then appointed as a Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa with effect from 1 August 2013.
At the invitation of the Law School of his alma mater, the University of Notre Dame, Madlanga held the prestigious Clynes Chair as a visiting professor.
This Chair is reserved for distinguished U.S. and international legal scholars, and among those who have held it are U.S. Supreme Court Justices.
In that capacity, Madlanga offered a two-credit three-week course from 4 April 2016.
On 13 May 2016, the Walter Sisulu University awarded Madlanga a Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree (honoris causa) at the graduation ceremony.
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.
The journal 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, South African Law Journal and Yearbook of South African Law.
Justice Madlanga takes retirement as he is given yet another assignment by the President of the Republic to chair a Commission of Inquiry into allegations regarding law enforcement agencies.
The commission will investigate allegations relating to the infiltration of law enforcement, intelligence, and associated institutions within the criminal justice system by criminal syndicates.
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 Juducuary.
