South African Constitution
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The current and official Constitution of the Republic of South Africa was adopted on 8 May 1996. It is the supreme law of South Africa.

History

The South African Constitutional Court played an important role in the adoption of the 1996 Constitution. In terms of the interim constitution, the Parliament sitting as the Constitutional Assembly was required to produce a new constitution. In turn, the court was required to certify that the new constitution complied with the 34 constitutional principles agreed upon in advance by the negotiators of the Interim Constitution. The court ruled that the constitutional text adopted by the Constitutional Assembly in May 1996 could not be certified. The court identified the features of the new text that did not in its view comply with the Constitutional Principles and gave its reasons for that view. The Constitutional Assembly then had to reconsider the text, taking the court’s reasons for non-certification into account.

The Constitutional Assembly reconvened and on 11 October 1996, it adopted an amended constitutional text, containing many changes from the previous text, some dealing with the court’s reasons for non-certification and others tightening up the text. The amended text was then sent to the Constitutional Court for certification. In its judgement in the Certification of the Amended Text of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (4 December 1996) the court held that all of the grounds for non-certification of the earlier text had been eliminated in the new draft and accordingly certified that the text complied with the requirements of the Constitutional Principles. The text duly became the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa in 1996 and came into effect in February 1997. It has been amended thirteen times since its adoption. On 8 May 2006 the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the constitution was celebrated in parliament.

Features

The constitution consists of a preamble, fourteen chapters followed by seven schedules. Each chapter and schedule focus on a specific topic. The following is a list of chapters and schedules and the focus of each.

Chapters

Chapter 1 of the Constitution is entitled "Founding Provisions." It enshrines in the constitution key national principles, identifies the flag of South Africa and lists the official languages. By virtue of section 2 of chapter 1, all statutes that conflict with the Constitution are of no force or effect.

South Africa is defined in this chapter as being a democratic, independent republic based upon the principles of protecting dignity, human rights and the rule of law. Values of dignity and human rights are repeated in Chapter 2.

The official languages are identified by section 6 as being Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu. The government of South Africa is also required to promote usage of native languages. Choice of language by national or municipal government should take into consideration the most relevant language to the area affected. Section 6 also requires that a Pan South African Language Board must ­advance the use of all official languages, and to respect the citizens' use of other languages such as German or Urdu.

Other chapters are,

• Chapter 2 - Bill of Rights
• Chapter 3 - Co-operative Government
• Chapter 4 - Parliament
• Chapter 5 - The President and National Executive
• Chapter 6 - Provinces
• Chapter 7 - Local Government
• Chapter 8 - Courts and Administration of Justice
• Chapter 9 - State Institutions Supporting Constitutional Democracy
• Chapter 10 - Public Administration
• Chapter 11 - Security Services
• Chapter 12 - Traditional Leaders
• Chapter 13 - Finance
• Chapter 14 - General Provisions

Schedules

• Schedule 1 - National Flag
• Schedule 2 - Oaths and Solemn Affirmations
• Schedule 3 - Election Procedures
• Schedule 4 - Functional Areas of Concurrent National and Provincial Legislative Competence
• Schedule 5 - Functional Areas of Exclusive Provincial Legislative Competence
• Schedule 6 - Transitional Arrangements
• Schedule 7 - Laws Repealed

Amendments to the current constitution

There have been thirteen amendments since 1996.

* The Citation of Constitutional Laws Act, No. 5 of 1999 provides that the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 and Acts which amend it, are not to be associated with Act numbers. It is possible that Act 5 of 1999 itself can be considered an amendment of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, but it makes no provision for itself to be referred to without reference to it Act number.^{citation needed}

Previous and current constitution of South Africa

• 1909 South Africa Act 1909 - Unified, self-governing Dominion.
• 1961 Republic of South Africa Constitution Act (32 of 1961) - Republican constitution.
• 1983 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act (110 of 1983) - Establishment of the tri-cameral system.
• 1993 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act (200 of 1993) - Interim constitution, 1994-1996. [1]
• 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act, 1996

Respect for the Constitution

The state has generally accepted judgements in which courts have declared its behaviour unconstitutional. A noted exception is the eThekweni (Durban) Municipality that has consistently and in direct violation of the constitution evicted shack dwellers without an order of the court.^{citation needed} When courts have ordered the Municipality to cease this such orders have simply been ignored.

See also

• Law of South Africa
• Public Protector

External links

• Copy of the Constitution from the official South African Government website
• LegalB Overview and links to the South African Constitution, 1996 and each of its amending Acts - free online
• A comprehensive online version of the South African Constitution, also available in other download able formats. From theconstitutional.org
• Text of the constitution from the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria

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