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Each year since President De Klerk’s passing on 11 November 2021, the FW de Klerk Foundation hosts an annual Memorial Lecture in his name to commemorate his legacy and the values he stood and worked for. The 2026 Memorial Lecture, co-hosted by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, will focus on the 30th anniversary of the South Africa Constitution. President Nelson Mandela signed the Constitution into law in Sharpeville, in Vereeniging, on 10 December 1996.
“The Constitution is proof that deeply divided societies can choose dialogue over conflict,” says Christo van der Rheede, Executive Director of the FW de Klerk Foundation. “Its vision of a South Africa, where the state itself is subject to the law, and where all enjoy dignity, equality and freedom, remains as relevant today as it was thirty years ago.”
President FW de Klerk, in 2010, noted the following:
“Since then the Constitution has in a very real sense been the foundation of our new society:
- it articulates the values on which the new South Africa has been founded;
- it expresses the transformational aspirations for human dignity, equality and social justice for which we all should strive;
- it lists the rights that all our citizens must enjoy;
- and it provides truly democratic principles for the organisation of the State, including an executive responsible to a democratically elected legislature and an independent judiciary standing guard over the Constitution, the rule of law and the Bill of Rights.
The Constitution was nevertheless a great historic compromise. No party achieved everything that it wanted – but all parties were able to secure their minimum demands. Some wanted a unitary state; others, a federation; some wanted unbridled power to expropriate property; others were deeply concerned about the future of their homes and businesses. Some wanted a single South African identity; others insisted on retaining our rich cultural and language diversity. We were able to reach compromises regarding all of these critical issues, many of which were very delicately balanced.
So, for South Africa, our Constitution is much more than a handbook on managing the mechanisms of democracy or protecting basic human rights. In the words of the preamble, it is enabling us to heal the divisions of the past and to establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights.
In short, the Constitution is the indispensable basis of our national unity and our best and abiding hope for continued freedom, prosperity and stability.”
Source: De Klerk (2010) “A future perspective on constitutional stability”. Published in Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal PER/PELJ 2010(13)2, accessed online at https://scielo.org.za/pdf/pelj/v13n2/v13n2a01.pdf
