Acting Justice Tembeka Ngcukaitobi

Personal Details

Justice Tembeka Ngcukaitobi

Education

B Proc: LLB University of Transkei, now Walter Sisulu University
LLM Rhodes University
LLM London School of Economics and Political Science

Professional history

1999-2000: Legal Resources Centre, South Africa
2001-2002: Law Clerk: Constitutional Court of South Africa
2002-2008: Associate, Senior Associate, Partner: Bowman Gilfillan
2009-2011: Director of the Constitutional Litigation Unit of the Legal Resources Centre
2011: Advocate of the High Court of South Africa, Johannesburg Bar
2014: Acting Judge of Labour Court
2015: Acting Judge of Land Claims Court
2017: Acting Judge, Land Claims Court
2019: Recommended for Senior Counsel status
2020: Appointed Senior Counsel
2021: Acting Judge, High Court of South Africa
2022: Appointed Commissioner of the Judicial Service Commission
2025: Acting Judge, High Court of South Africa
2026: Acting Justice, Constitutional Court of South Africa June 2026 - to date

Other Activities

Commissioner at the South African Law Reform Commission, 2007-2011, appointed by President Thabo Mbeki
Inaugural Executive Committee Member of Council for Advancement of South African Constitution
Founding member of the Pan African Bar Association of South Africa
Served as Trustee of Constitutional Court Trust
Adjunct Professor of Law, Nelson Mandela University
Professor of Law, Walter Sisulu University
Co-authored The Constitutional Law Casebook with Jason Brickhill and Nikki Stein, Juta, 2013
Co-authored Labour Dispute Resolution with John Brand, Juta
Updated the Chapter on Equality Section of The Bill of Rights Handbook by Iain Currie and Johan De Waal, Juta, 2015
Contributed the Chapter Precedent, Separation of Powers and the Constitutional Court to Acta Juridica: Reinventing Labour Law, Juta, 2012
Authored The Land Is Ours: South Africa’s First Black Lawyers and the Birth of Constitutionalism, Penguin, 2018
Authored Land Matters: South Africa’s Failed Land Reforms and the Road Ahead, Penguin, 2021

CONTACT US

info@concourt.org.za

  Switchboard: +27 11 359-7400

   Constitutional Court , 1 Hospital Street , Constitution Hill , Braamfontein , 2017

   Constitutional Court, Private Bag X 1, Constitution Hill, Braamfontein, 2017

NAVIGATION

THE HISTORY OF THE IDEA

The notion of a bill of rights for South Africa can be traced back to an ANC document in the early 1920s. The Freedom Charter of 1955 carried the idea forward.