GRADUATE PROFILE | JUSTICE MBUYISELI RUSSEL MADLANGA

The former acting deputy chief justice of the constitutional court, obtained a BJuris degree at the University of Transkei, now Walter Sisulu University in 1983.

He was awarded the Juta Prize for being the best law student during this time.

In 1986, three years after graduating from Unitra, he obtained an LLB Degree at Rhodes University where he tutored first-year students in his final year.

After graduating, he lectured part-time at the then University of Transkei Law Faculty while working for the Department of Justice towards fulfilling his contractual obligations under the government bursary that had funded his LLB studies.

In 1990 Madlanga was awarded the Master of Laws (LLM) degree (Cum Laude) by the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, USA; through the Bradlow Notre Dame Human Rights Law Scholarship.

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.

Former President Jacob Zuma appointed Madlanga as a permanent Judge of the Constitutional Court, the highest Court in the land on the 15th April 2013. He took up his position on 1 August 2013.

On 13 May 2016, He was awarded a Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree (honoris causa) by Walter Sisulu University.

In March 2023, Rhodes also bestowed a Doctor of Law (honoris cause) degree on Madlanga for his distinguished judicial career and significant contribution to developing South Africa’s jurisprudence.

On 13 July 2025, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed the now retired Justice Madlanga to investigate allegations of political interference into police work, made by Kwa Zulu Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkwanazi on 6 July 2025.

The Madlanga Commission, officially the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Criminality, Political Interference, and Corruption in the Criminal Justice System, investigates allegations of organised crime and political influence within South Africa's justice system.

Two months ago, at Rhodes University’s 10 October 2025 graduation ceremony, Justice Madlanga was officially installed as Chancellor of the university.

Madlanga was born on 27 March 1962 in the rural village of Njijini, outside the small town of Kwa Bhaca (formerly Mount Frere), in the Eastern Cape.

He matriculated at Mariazell High School in Matatiele in 1979.

He is married to Nosisi Monica Madlanga, born Nkenkana. They have seven children.

Earlier, during his time in America, he interned at the Washington DC office of Amnesty International. On his return to the country, he did pupillage at the Johannesburg Bar. On completion, he opened a practice at the Mthatha Bar.

His many stints in the judiciary include being appointed Acting Judge of Appeal at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein before being appointed – this time on a permanent basis – as a Judge of Appeal in the Competition Appeal Court.

He also acted as the Judge President of the Mthatha High Court at some stage.

Madlanga also had stints as a visiting professor at universities in South Africa and USA and time and again wrote a string of papers at these universities.

He delivered a number of precedent-setting and groundbreaking judgements in his tenure as the justice of the constitutional court.

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 jurists, and among those who have held it are US Supreme Court Justices.

Compiled by: MALIBONGWE DAYIMANI. Pic: Supplied/ RU