News24.com | FRIDAY BRIEFING | In defence of the Constitution

In defence of the Constitution

South Africa’s Constitution, which is revered globally and regarded as a symbol of transition from the old to new, marks its 27^th anniversary this year.

Then president Nelson Mandela signed the Constitution of South Africa into law in Sharpeville on 10 December 1996.

It provides the foundation stone of our democracy and an overarching framework in which we can find a set of rules and values that binds everyone.

And while it may be highly regarded around the world, the Constitution doesn’t always get the respect it should back home. In part, this can be blamed on the growing poverty and inequality, since democracy along with governing party corruption and unfulfilled promises, has led to growing anti-constitutional populism.

Even politicians such as Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu have taken potshots at the Constitution. In 2022, she penned an opinion article condemning the “neoliberal Constitution with foreign inspiration” as a colonial construct and blamed the founding document for the failure of slow transformation and the continued grinding poverty among black South Africans.

Dr Klaus Kotzé, a fellow at the Centre for Rhetoric Studies at the University of Cape Town, wrote in a paper looking at the impact of language on our constitutional democracy that "the lived and well-documented failure of service delivery in South Africa illustrates the failure to translate constitutional ideals into corresponding action".

This week, Friday Briefing publishes three speeches delivered at the FW de Klerk Foundation’s recent annual conference, which considered why we need to defend the Constitution.

UCT’s Public Law Professor Hugh Corder spoke on the role of the courts in holding up the Constitution. He examined the strengths of and the challenges to the judges, the administration of justice, and what is to be done. His faith remains in the role of the judiciary to do what is needed, but he says more can be done from the side of Parliament, the government and citizens.

Executive secretary for the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, Lawson Naidoo, reflected on how inequality, poverty, unemployment, corruption, crumbling infrastructure, weak law enforcement agencies and a lack of government accountability has undermined efforts to build our society. But he feels that this should be no reason to abandon the transformative vision of the Constitution.

Finally, News24’s editor in chief, Adriaan Basson, examined the role of investigative journalism in keeping democracy, and with it the Constitution, alive.

I hope this week’s edition gives you food for thought on why the Constitution needs to be protected.

Enjoy your weekend.

Best,

Vanessa Banton

Opinions editor.