Sandile Ngcobo

Sandile Ngcobo (born 1 March 1953) is a retired South African judge who was the Chief Justice of South Africa from October 2009 to August 2011. He served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa from August 1999 until his retirement in August 2011. Before that, he was a judge of the Cape Provincial Division and the Labour Appeal Court.

Born in Durban, Ngcobo split his legal career between his hometown and the United States. In South Africa, he was admitted as an attorney in 1981 and as an advocate in 1988, and he practised primarily in labour law and public interest law. After the end of apartheid, President Nelson Mandela appointed him to the Supreme Court of South Africa in September 1996, to the Labour Appeal Court in November 1997, and, in May 1999, to the Constitutional Court, where he succeeded the late Justice John Didcott. He also served on the amnesty committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission between 1998 and 1999.

After ten years on the bench, Ngcobo was elevated to the Office of the Chief Justice in 2011, nominated by President Jacob Zuma to succeed Chief Justice Pius Langa. He retired two years later after Zuma controversially, and unsuccessfully, attempted to extend his term five years beyond the standard maximum.

Early life and education Ngcobo was born on 1 March 1953 in Durban in the former Natal Province. After matriculating, he was a clerk at Barclays Bank in 1975. Thereafter, supported by a scholarship from Barclays, he attended the University of Zululand, where he completed a BProc in 1975. He later completed an LLB at the University of Natal in 1985 and an LLM at Harvard Law School in 1986; he was a Fulbright Scholar and a Harvard Law School Human Rights Fellow.

Legal career Ngcobo graduated from the University of Zululand amid the political turmoil of the mid-apartheid period, and he was arrested during the Soweto uprising of 1976 and detained without trial until July 1977; he later said that his detention was a formative experience in his legal career. He moved to the Legal Resources Centre, also in Durban, in 1982. The Centre focused on public interest litigation, particularly cases involving apartheid legislation and including matters before the Supreme Court of South Africa. He served a full 12-year term in the court.

He wrote the Constitutional Court's opinion in the landmark Doctors for Life v Speaker of the National Assembly, a 2006 challenge to the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act which demarcated the scope of the constitutional right to public participation in lawmaking, and in Albutt v Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, on victim participation in presidential pardons. and the Mail & Guardian said that this suspicion prevailed throughout Ngcobo's tenure in the court.

Chief Justice: 2009–2011 Ahead of Pius Langa's resignation as Chief Justice of South Africa in 2009, Ngcobo was initially viewed as an "outsider" for the position, with Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke viewed as the overwhelming favourite to succeed Langa. However, on 6 August 2009, President Zuma announced that Ngcobo was his sole nominee for elevation to Langa's position, saying that Ngcobo had "more experience" than Moseneke. Three major opposition parties – the Democratic Alliance, the Congress of the People, and the Independent Democrats – released a joint statement objecting to Zuma's announcement, claiming that the opposition had not been consulted on the nomination. They also expressed a preference for Moseneke over Ngcobo. However, Ngcobo was interviewed by the Judicial Service Commission in September, in a discussion which focused on Ngcobo's views on the importance of judicial integrity and equal access to justice. His appointment was confirmed by Zuma on 1 October 2009.

Ngcobo was often described as an "imperial" and "intimidating" Chief Justice, in contrast to his more "egalitarian" predecessors, Pius Langa and Arthur Chaskalson.

Retirement: 2011 Upon his appointment as Chief Justice, Ngcobo was only two years away from mandatory retirement, sparking speculation that President Zuma intended for his term to serve as a stopgap ahead of the appointment of a more controversial successor, such as John Hlophe. However, in mid-2011, as Ngcobo's retirement approached, rumours circulated that Zuma was considering extending Ngcobo's term, an unusual measure. Indeed, on 3 June, Zuma announced that Ngcobo had agreed, at his request, to serve five additional years as Chief Justice, an extension that would be effected in terms of Section 8(a) of the Judges Remuneration and Conditions of Employment Act. The announcement was highly controversial: while some observers, like commentator Richard Calland, supported the move, others strongly opposed it on the grounds that a presidential extension derogated a parliamentary power and undermined judicial independence.

The Centre for Applied Legal Studies, based at the University of the Witwatersrand, spearheaded an application against the extension and the underlying legal provision, which was heard in the Constitutional Court in July 2011. In addition, while the court's judgement was pending, the Cabinet initiated a legislative amendment to the Judges Remuneration Act which would explicitly provide for an extension to the Chief Justice's term. However, on 27 July, Ngcobo announced that he had withdrawn his acceptance of the extension and that he would instead retire the following month as initially planned. Justice Minister Jeff Radebe that that, "Ngcobo said he found it undesirable for a chief justice to be party in litigation involving the question of whether or not he should continue to hold office as this detracts from the integrity of the office of the chief justice and the esteem in which it is held". Two days later, the Constitutional Court handed down its judgement in the challenge to the extension, finding unanimously that Section 8(a) of the Judges Remuneration Act was unconstitutional and that Zuma lacked the authority to extend a Constitutional Court judge's term of office.

On 12 August 2011, ahead of a farewell ceremony, Ngcobo handed down his final judgement in the court in the matter of Limpopo Premier v Limpopo Speaker, an administrative law matter which overruled the Limpopo Provincial Legislature's attempt to pass provincial financial management legislation without the assent of the Premier of Limpopo.

Retirement In his retirement, Ngcobo continued his public service by chairing several high-profile judicial inquiries in South Africa. In 2013, he was appointed by President Zuma to chair the newly established Presidential Remuneration Review Commission; between 2014 and 2019, he chaired the Competition Commission's Health Market Inquiry into the private healthcare sector; and, in 2021, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize appointed him to chair the no-fault compensation fund established to compensate adverse events suffered by COVID-19 vaccine users. Finally, in September 2022, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, appointed him as chairperson of the independent panel which Parliament tasked with investigating whether the Phala Phala scandal provided possible grounds for impeaching President Cyril Ramaphosa. The three-person panel found that Ramaphosa "has a case to answer".

Internationally, Ngcobo is the president of the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa's International Court, and he has acted as a judge of appeal in the Supreme Court of Namibia.

Academic appointments Before his appointment to the bench, Ngcobo occasionally served as a part-time lecturer at the University of Natal, teaching race legislation in 1988 and constitutional litigation in 1995. He was made an honorary professor at the University of Cape Town in February 1999. In subsequent decades, he was a visiting professor at several law schools in the United States, including the New York University School of Law, Columbia Law School, and Harvard Law School.

Personal life He is married to Zandile Ngcobo, with whom he has two sons and a daughter. He speaks English, Afrikaans, Zulu, and Xhosa, and also knows Latin.