Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi: Special court seating to mark retirement of Acting Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga

Chief Justice Mandisa Maya
Former President Thabo Mbeki
Acting Deputy Chief Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, our celebrant Bhungane
Current Justices of the Constitutional Court and former Justices of the Constitutional Court
President of the Supreme Court and Judges of the Supreme Court of Appeal
Heads of Courts
National Director of Public Prosecutions Adv Shamila Batohi
Legal practitioners
Good morning

It is a great honour for me to be part of this very auspicious occasion among very distinguished jurists, legal practitioners, legal scholars and leaders to mark the retirement of distinguished jurist.

It is always difficult to do justice when one pays tribute to a person who has done so much for the legal profession, the development of jurisprudence and the country.

On behalf of our government let me take this opportunity to thank you Justice Madlanga for the distinguished service you have rendered for our country. The people who have gathered here and those who joined us last night at the dinner to mark your retirement are testament to the important role you have played in the strengthening of our constitutional democracy and making our country a more just society.

We are gathered here to mark your retirement, yet I know that yours is not a retirement but a move from one area of service to humanity to another. You might have delivered your last judgment today, but I know as a matter of fact that this is not the last time that you are going to weigh the evidence, listen to witnesses and deliver a decision.

The years that you have spent in the bench interpreting our laws and ensuring that the South Africa of today and tomorrow is a more just society than the South Africa of yesterday contributed to a vision that was conceived 70 years ago that said ‘All shall be equal before the law’.

You served in the Constitutional Court for five years and in this capacity your authored just under 60 judgments. Overwhelmingly, your judgments are either unanimous or command the majority.

The judgments relate to many of the weighty issues the Court has pronounced upon in our constitutional democracy such as: the implications of the Constitution for contract law and for marriages concluded under customary law; the duty of Parliament to facilitate public participation in legislative processes; the constitutional privilege of free speech and immunity from arrest of members of Parliament; the obligation of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to record voters’ addresses on the voters’ roll; the entitlement of candidates to stand for election to public office without being attached to a political party; the constitutional right of a farm worker – Ms Daniels – to effect improvements to her modest home to make it habitable in the absence of the land owner’s consent.

In this judgment Justice Madlanga graphically describes the pain, indignity and injustice of land dispossession in South Africa – an open wound that occupies the centre of our constitutional democracy today.

Justice Madlanga carried out his responsibilities with the understanding that our country has a past which was characterised by injustices that have shaped our present and will continue to shape South African realities for a foreseeable future.

Thus, his judgements have lived to the preamble which says:
‘We, the people of South Africa, …recognise the injustices of our past; believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity. We therefore, …, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights’.

In the few months I have directly interacted with you, I have learned a lot but most importantly observed how you pay attention to details. Your precision in every task you take, as Chief Justice Maya said last night you led to a successful celebration of 30 years of the Constitutional Court.

In my team in the department you have earned a nickname of being a Duracell, that you have energy and do not get out of steam.

Your work ethic and humility that allows you to work with anyone irrespective of their title or the office you hold. You are indeed a rare breed and they do not come often with such qualities.

As I have already mentioned, your retirement here today just means you are going to serve your country from a different institutional arrangement. I know that when your country calls you to serve you will do so without hesitation as you have already done.

As I sit down let me quote Kwame Nkrumah: “Those who would judge us merely by the heights we have achieved, would do well to remember the depths from which we started.”

You are a testament of a journey of perseverance, discipline, dedication, hard work and loyalty to your country.

We wish you well in your future endeavours.
Once again we thank you for your contribution Rhadebe, Mthimkulu, Bhungane

Ndiyabulela

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