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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Constitution-Making Powers of Provinces under the South African Constitution |
Author: | Rakate, Phenyo Keiseng |
Year: | 2001 |
Periodical: | Recht in Afrika = Law in Africa = Droit en Afrique |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 149-162 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | constitutions 1996 constitutional amendments regional government Law, Human Rights and Violence Politics and Government |
Abstract: | South Africa's interim Constitution and the new Constitution of 1996 confer powers on provinces to write their own constitutions. The Constitutional Court as guardian of the Constitution must ensure that a provincial constitution is consistent with the national Constitution through a process of certification. The purpose of certification is to achieve finality: once the Constitutional Court has certified the constitution that decision cannot be challenged. This essay examines the extent to which the certification process of provincial constitutions has contributed towards strengthening constitutional democracy in South Africa and outlines lessons to be learned from the process. It first analyses the two-staged process of writing the national South African Constitution and then reviews the Constitutional Court's certification decisions of the KwaZulu Natal Constitution and the Western Cape Constitution. The constitution-making powers of provinces have played a meaningful role in the consolidation of constitutional democracy in South Africa. However, the powers of the provinces in South Africa derive from and are to a large extent regulated by the national Constitution. Notes, ref., sum. |