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Chapter 1 - The South African Constitution and Bill of Rights

Development of constitutions in South Africa

Between 1910 and 1994 there have been four Constitutions in South Africa:

• In 1910 Britain decided to withdraw from the government of South Africa and handed the country over to the white residents of South Africa. These people were the British settlers and the Boers. The first Constitution for the Union of South Africa was adopted in 1910. This gave rights to the white minority but took away the right to vote of the majority of South Africans.
• In 1960 the white government held a referendum to decide whether South Africa would become a Republic. On 31 May 1961 South Africa was declared a Republic and the government adopted the second Constitution. This also took away the rights of black people.
• In 1983 the government passed the third Constitution. This Constitution created the tricameral parliament, which meant there was a separate parliament for the White, Coloured and Indian groups. This Constitution excluded black people and automatically made them citizens of the homeland where they were born. They had no rights outside these homelands.
• In 1994, twenty-six parties negotiated and adopted an interim Constitution, that gave the vote to everyone. This Constitution lasted for two years. During that time the elected government worked as the Constitutional Assembly and had to draw up a final Constitution.

Writing the final Constitution

CODESA

On 2 February 1990, the National Party government unbanned political parties, released many political prisoners and detainees, and unbanned many people, including Nelson Mandela.

On 20 and 21 December the first session of CODESA (Convention for a Democratic South Africa) was held. There were 19 political groups at this event. All parties agreed to support the Declaration of Intent, which said that they would begin writing a new Constitution for South Africa.

The Multi-party Negotiating Process

In March 1993 full negotiations were initiated under the name of the MPNP - Multi-party Negotiating Process - instead of CODESA. Twenty-six parties took part in the MPNP to write and adopt an interim Constitution to say how the government would govern after the elections on 27 April 1994. The MPNP drew up the Interim Constitution which was to last for two years..

The Constitutional Assembly (CA)

After the elections in 1994 the new Parliament - working as the Constitutional Assembly (CA) – wrote the final Constitution and on  8 May 1996, it was finally adopted by the Constitutional Assembly. The final Constitution was passed by Parliament and became law on 18 December 1996.