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25 years of the South African Constitution

Reflections and Realisations

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the South African Constitution. This paper details how the Constitution serves as a framework towards a peaceful and just society for all. The aim here is not to be triumphal in commemoration, nor simply be conservative in observation. Instead, the paper affirms that the Constitution is only valid and powerful when its ideals are practiced. It looks at how the guiding values and principles of the Constitution are used and abused. Herein language matters. It is our use of language that offers the clearest measure of Constitutionalism. It is through language that we put ideals into motion. It is also through language that our value system is repudiated, and our Constitutional order is impaired.

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Constitutional orders are not arbitrarily achieved. As captured by the iconic tree in the logo of the Constitutional court, the Constitution is a living system that is disputed and cultivated by a country’s people over time. According to Justice Albie Sachs, “the tree protects the people, and they look after the tree”1. The tree and those who tend it co-exist dynamically. It is the responsibility of all South Africans to nurture and mature this order. Without the popular application of the Constitutional principles in word and deed, our precarious state faces disintegration.

The building or for that matter the breaking down of a nation is a deliberate act. The recent looting and acts of sabotage are attempts to replace an order with disorder. We are increasingly seeing the reconciliatory national project coming under attack. Its foundations and aims of overcoming, of forgiveness and unity are being replaced by polarizing and vengeful missives that seek to undo the truly democratic gains that have been achieved. These narratives are supplanting the development of a holistic appreciation that South Africa’s reality is complex and traumatized. These are populist and fatalistic narratives are attractive because they are simplistic. They reject the essence of our state and must therefore be challenged. The best way of doing so is to actively make a case for our Constitution and its principles. In doing so we give expression to its foundations; we embolden its ideas and repudiate the new force which pushes us apart.

On the 20th anniversary of the Constitution, then deputy President Ramaphosa called on all citizens to realise their Constitutional responsibility: “As South Africans we ought to say: does the Constitution still serve the current situation we are in… (this) should be a debate we engage in”2 . This discussion paper takes on his appeal. At this time of mounting headwinds, it reflects upon the Constitution and calls upon its expeditious activation and realization.

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