When the Supreme Court of Appeal delivered a majority judgment legalising the warrants issued for the search of President Jacob Zuma’s premises in his long-running battles with the prosecuting authority, it was left to the Constitutional Court to settle the matter once and for all.
The highest court — on the heels of the controversy surrounding alleged attempts by Cape Judge President John Hlophe to influence their decision — delivered a majority judgment against Zuma.
The only dissenting voice was that of Judge Sandile Ngcobo, who found that the search warrants obtained by the NPA for the premises of Zuma’s lawyers should not have been rendered legal.
At least one prominent legal academic suggested Ngcobo might have dissented to position himself as an alternative to Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke when the time came for Zuma to choose a successor to Chief Justice Pius Langa.
Analyst Pierre de Vos noted that, given the political implications of the Zuma warrants case, Langa would have tried to achieve consensus in the court.
De Vos said: ”A dissenting opinion in such a high-profile case that went against the man who might well appoint the next chief justice will not go unnoticed.”
Ngcobo, a Fulbright scholar, was appointed to the Constitutional Court in 1999. The Judicial Service Commission had recommended then-Johannesburg High Court Judge Edwin Cameron, but Ngcobo controversially landed the job  after the intervention of then-deputy president Thabo Mbeki.
Ngcobo was born in Durban in 1953 and completed his undergraduate BProc studies in 1975, obtaining distinctions in constitutional law, mercantile law and accounting.
He was admitted as an attorney six years later, after stints as a clerk and public prosecutor.
He spent a year in detention during the 1976 uprisings.
Between 1978 and 1982 Ngcobo worked for a law firm owned by Supreme Court of Appeal judge and electoral court head KK Mthiyane and later joined the Legal Resources Centre in Durban.
He has studied and practised in the United States, completing a certificate programme on the US legal system at Georgetown University in 1985, the same year he completed an LLB at the then-University of Natal. The following year he undertook an LLM at Harvard University.
Admitted as an advocate in 1988, he practised in both South Africa and the US until 1992.
The following year he served as a judge on the KwaZulu-Natal Industrial Court.
At the advent of South Africa’s democracy, Ngcobo served on the newly constituted Independent Electoral Commission. He later took his first permanent position on the Bench in the Cape Provincial Division in 1996, also serving in the labour court as acting judge president.
In addition, Ngcobo has lectured part-time at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
He is married to Zandile. They have a daughter, Nokwanda, and two sons, Ayanda and Manqoba.