Tholie Madala

Tholakele Hope "Tholie" Madala (13 July 1937 – 25 August 2010) was a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa between October 1994 and October 2008. He was appointed to the court by Nelson Mandela upon the court's inception. Before that, he practised as a human rights lawyer in the Transkei, taking silk in 1993, and served briefly in the Mthatha Supreme Court in 1994. He retired from the bench in 2008.

Early life and education Madala was born on 13 July 1937 in Kokstad on the border between the former Cape and Natal Provinces. He matriculated in 1956 at St John's College in Mthatha, Eastern Cape and went on to the University of Fort Hare, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts and a postgraduate teaching diploma.

Thereafter, in 1972, he enrolled at the University of Natal to study law. He studied at the university's Pietermaritzburg campus, where he helped establish the legal aid clinic. In addition, he was active in the Transkei Society of Advocates, serving as its vice-chairperson from 1987 to 1990 and as its chairperson from 1991 to 1993. He served in the High Court only briefly before being elevated to the appellate court.

Constitutional Court: 1994–2008 In October 1994, President Nelson Mandela appointed Madala as a judge in the newly inaugurated post-apartheid Constitutional Court of South Africa.

As a member of the inaugural bench under Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson, Madala was tasked with overseeing the design of the justices' robes.

Opinions In his early years in the court, Madala wrote concurring judgements in the landmark matters of S v Makwanyane and Soobramoney v Minister of Health, drawing in the former case on the value of ubuntu, which he said "permeates the Interim Constitution". Notable majority judgements written by him included the court's unanimous judgement in Satchwell v President, which found that the equality clause of the Bill of Rights entitled judges' same-sex partners to the same financial benefits available to opposite-sex spouses.

He also wrote the court's majority judgments in S v Rens, East Zulu Motors v Empangeni/Ngwelezane Transitional Local Council, Osman v Attorney-General for the Transvaal, S v Manamela (co-written with Albie Sachs, and Zak Yacoob), S v Niemand, S v Basson (co-written with Laurie Ackermann, Yvonne Mokgoro, Dikgang Moseneke, Sandile Ngcobo, and Kate O'Regan), SABC v National Director of Public Prosecutions (co-written with Pius Langa, Dumile Kondile, Bess Nkabinde, O'Regan, Belinda van Heerden, and Yacoob), NM v Smith, and Nyathi v MEC for Health, Gauteng.

Retirement Madala retired from the Constitutional Court in October 2008 after 14 years on the bench.

Personal life and death He was married to Patricia Alice Ndileka Madala, who was an advocate of the High Court before leaving practice; they had three children. In addition, until his appointment to the bench, he was the deputy chairperson of the Transkei National Building Society. ''

He died on 25 August 2010. Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo called for a moment of silence in his honour during the next day's Constitutional Court sitting, and he was buried in Mthatha.