SOUTH AFRICA:Pius Langa sought to revolutionise the judiciary, but now accepts his targets will take time, writes Mary Fitzgerald, Foreign Affairs Correspondent.
When Pius Langa faced a panel of fellow judges during his interview for the post of South African chief justice two years ago, he didn't mince his words.
Dismissing reports that he favoured a gradual overhaul of the country's judiciary to better fit the realities of post-apartheid South Africa, Langa said he was impatient with the rate of change. "My idea of transformation is more revolutionary," he declared, adding that he would adopt a "zero tolerance" attitude to racism.
South Africa's first black chief justice faced a delicate balancing act - how to appoint more black judges while ensuring that the courts remained independent. Although the bulk of judges appointed after 1994 were black, for many South Africans the judiciary - with its predominance of white males - still held a lingering whiff of the apartheid era.
Two years on, the softly-spoken Langa is a little more philosophical about the speed of reform. "It's going on apace," he told The Irish Times. "I must emphasise that transformation for me is not just a matter of colour or gender. We do need more black people, we do need more women, but in fact what is more important is the appointment of people who subscribe to the values of the constitution. Obviously it is better if all sections of the population are represented in the judiciary, but one must careful not to sacrifice competence, integrity and quality."
Langa says the image of the South African judiciary as a bastion of the white male elite is being eroded: "I think the proportion of black people in the judiciary now is quite high. Although we still haven't exactly reached parity, we are approaching it.
"What I would like to see is a fully integrated judiciary so people stop talking about judges who are appointed before 1994 and judges who are appointed after 1994."
President Thabo Mbeki's favoured candidate for chief justice, Pius Langa's personal story counts among South Africa's most inspiring. Born in 1939, he was 14 when his parents told him they were unable to pay for school fees. Langa worked in a shirt factory from 1957 to 1960 but found employment as an interpreter and messenger for the department of justice after graduating through private study. Working his way up through the ranks, he was admitted as an advocate of the supreme court in Natal in 1977. Having developed a reputation as "the people's advocate", he was appointed a judge of South Africa's constitutional court in 1994 and made deputy chief justice six years ago. Langa was the first South African judge to take his oath in a language other than English or Afrikaans.
Asked what inspired him to enter the legal profession, he replies: "It was the environment in which I grew up. The injustices I saw, the inequality in the system at the time, all the experiences black people were subjected to, the enforced separation of the races - all that contributed to it.
"If you were in my place and the place of millions of other people in South Africa at the time, you were forced to fight against all that."
There is still some way to go, he acknowledges. The South African judicial system has been rocked by recent high-profile cases in which black and white judges have been accused of racism. "There are perceptions within society that possibly black judges are racist or white judges are racist but this is to be expected," Langa says. "With the sort of background we have and our history of separation, there is this idea that if I don't know where you come from I must look at you with suspicion. But we are dealing with this.
"Racism is everywhere in South Africa, not just within the judicial system. I would say that we are engaged in a constant campaign to dissipate these attitudes. Is it reducing? I think it is a long struggle and we should never stop fighting but I am not that worried about it - simply because I think we are winning."
In Ireland to receive an honorary doctorate from NUI Galway, Langa says his vision for South Africa's judicial system is straightforward. "In five years' time I would like to be able to say the judiciary is regarded by all and sundry inside South Africa as an independent institution of integrity, one that is respected completely by the entire South African community."