University of KwaZulu-Natal Opens First Ombuds Office

The top-tier South African university has created an Organizational Ombuds office and appointed former SA Chief Justice Pius Nkonzo Langa as the first Ombud. According to its terms of reference, the UKZN Ombuds Office serves more than 40,000 students, staff and academic staff. UKNZ is home to the African Ombudsman and Mediators Association, which is primiarily composed of Classical Ombuds, but the Ombuds Office explicitly practices to IOA standards for Organizational Ombuds.

Langa joined the Natal Bar in 1977 and practiced as an attorney handling political trials and on behalf of poor communities and organizations working against apartheid. He was founder member of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers, and served as its President for 6 years. In October 1994, he was appointed as a Judge of the then newly established Constitutional Court of South Africa. He became Chief Justice of South Africa in 2005 and served in that capacity until his retirement in October 2009. Langa served as Chancellor of the University of Natal from 1998 to 2003 later as Chancellor of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. (UKZN Ombuds Office; Wikipedia.)


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