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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Towards a democratic constitution for South Africa: the issues and the process |
Author: | Erasmus, G. |
Year: | 1992 |
Periodical: | Annual conference - African Society of International and Comparative Law |
Volume: | 4 |
Pages: | 141-152 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | democracy constitutions |
Abstract: | Constitutional change in South Africa is about replacing a minority regime with democracy and about creating, for the first time, political rights for the majority. The primary needs of black and white South Africans and their expectations of what a new constitution has to contain are different. The former want a State powerful enough to address the material imbalances in society and to bring about a redistribution of wealth; the latter want protection of their present position. Between these extreme positions a constitutional compromise has to be worked out. This is the implication of the route to constitutional change adopted in South Africa - that is, a negotiated settlement. The country's political leaders have to agree on the nature of the problem, the interim strategy, the transitional machinery and the constitutional philosophies and compromises to underpin a peaceful transition and a democratic outcome. That is what they have been trying to achieve through the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa). Notes, ref. |