[1] 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.
[1] He was known for his involvement in human rights cases, and he was a co-founder both of the Umtata Law Clinic, for impoverished residents of the Transkei, and of the Prisoners' Welfare Programme, for political detainees and their families.
In October 1994, President Nelson Mandela appointed Madala as a judge in the newly inaugurated post-apartheid Constitutional Court of South Africa.
[1] His appointment, announced in August 1994, was criticised as an example of tokenism by some commentators, who argued that it was only because of affirmative action that Madala had been elevated ahead of such white jurists as John Didcott.
[7] 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".
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.
Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo called for a moment of silence in his honour during the next day's Constitutional Court sitting,[3] and he was buried in Mthatha.