Mr President, Deputy President, Speaker, hon members of this House, in his state of the nation address President Zuma reminded us all that:
The year 2012 is also special because it marks the 16th anniversary of the Constitution of the Republic, which gives full expression to our democratic ideals.
The President said further:
The Constitution is South Africa's fundamental vision statement, which guides our policies and actions. We reaffirm our commitment to advance the ideals of our country's Constitution at all times.
It is the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa that is our guide as we advance in our quest to create a national democratic society. In its preamble, the Constitution enjoins all of us to:
Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;
Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;
Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and
Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.
As we celebrate 100 years of selfless struggle by the ANC, it is important to reflect on how the history of the ANC struggle sought to advance human rights and equal opportunities for all people of South Africa. The struggle for freedom has always been a struggle for human rights, a struggle for justice.
It was, therefore, no coincidence that in 1923 the ANC was the first organisation in South Africa to adopt the Bill of Rights. Its main themes in 1923 were that human rights should be universal, that all South Africans be given the right to ownership of land, that there should be equality before the law, and that there should be equal political rights.
These fundamental principles were rooted in contemporary democratic thinking and applied to our own specific South African conditions. These fundamental principles laid the basis for the adoption of the Africans' Claims in South Africa document by the ANC in 1943.
The Africans' Claims committed to the following, amongst other things: the abolition of political discrimination based on race, the right to equal justice in courts of law, freedom of movement and the repeal of pass laws, the right to freedom of the press, the right of every child to free and compulsory education, and equality of treatment with any other section of the South African population.
It is also of significance that the Africans' Claims were adopted ahead of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. It did not end there. The continual struggle for freedom culminated in the Congress of the People, a countrywide campaign that led to the birth of the Freedom Charter, which became a profound policy document that ultimately became and formed the bedrock of our current Constitution in the Republic of South Africa.
The masses of our people, when assembled in Kliptown in 1955, pledged to fight side by side, throughout their lives, until they had won our liberty. It has taken close to half a century for these freedoms and these liberties contained in the Freedom Charter to be realised in a protected, painful struggle for freedom led by the ANC.
Allow me, also, to remind this House that many in the liberation movement suffered the consequences of fighting for the constitutional values that we enjoy today. In this regard, many were imprisoned, many were exiled, many suffered various atrocities at the hands of the repression by the South African security forces. Many paid the ultimate price to ensure that this fundamental vision statement that the President talked about represented and found expression in every sphere of our endeavours as South Africans.
As you would know, these historical documents formed the basis of the mandate of the ANC leaders who led the negotiation process for the free democratic South Africa that we have come to witness today, representing the views and aspirations of millions of South African people. The unbanning of the ANC and other political parties and the release of former President Nelson Mandela and other political leaders set the tone for the negotiated settlement. The Groote Schuur Minute and the Pretoria Minute set the conditions for the negotiations between government and all political formations led by the ANC.
These negotiations, as we all know, ushered in our esteemed Constitution, which was eloquently described by former President Mandela as follows:
This is our national soul, our compact with one another as citizens, underpinned by our highest aspirations and our deepest apprehensions. Our pledge is: Never, never again shall the laws of our land render our people apart, or legalise their repression or oppression. Together we shall march hand in hand to a brighter future.
Therefore, this Constitution is founded on the values that the ANC stands for: nonracialism, nonsexism, respect for human rights and prosperity for all. It enshrines a justiciable Bill of Rights which, in terms of section 7 of the Constitution, is the cornerstone of our democracy. It enshrines the rights of all people in this land and affirms democratic values, human dignity and freedom.
The independence of the judiciary and the rule of law are the pillars on which the constitutional order is anchored. The separation of powers embodied in our Constitution provides checks and balances to safeguard these values. Each of the three arms of the state has been conferred a mandate by our Constitution.
These mandates are not meant to result in unhealthy competition or conflict with one another, or to put the three arms into antagonistic positions against each other. Instead, the Constitution creates a complementary framework in terms of which powers are exercised in a manner that would entrench the overall text and spirit of the Constitution as a whole.
We should bear in mind that the judiciary, by and large, must, as the late Chief Justice Mahomed would attest, interpret laws that seek to buttress our democratic order in line with the general injunction of the Constitution. These laws are instruments enacted by the legislature. This is a very important principle because the crafters of our Constitution had full knowledge of the inherent tension in the interplay amongst the three arms of the state, hence the powers to make laws do not reside with judges but with the legislature.
Similarly, the power and mandate to interpret the law does not reside with the legislature or the executive but with the judiciary. On the other hand, the executive is charged with political administration to ensure transformation and development, and not the judiciary.
The Constitutional Court continues to have a significant role in the transformation of society ...