close
close
Chapter 1
Related Sections
1
INTRODUCTION
2
What is a Constitution?
3
What is a democracy?
4
DEVELOPMENT OF CONSTITUTIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA
5
CODESA
6
The Multi-Party Negotiating Process
7
The Constitutional Assembly (CA)
8
THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONSTITUTION
9
The relationship between the Constitution and other laws
10
Changing or amending the Constitution
11
The separation of powers
12
The spheres of government
13
SUMMARY OF THE CONSTITUTION
14
Preamble
15
Chapter 1: Founding provisions
16
Chapter 2: The Bill of Rights
17
Chapter 3: Cooperative government
18
Chapter 4: Parliament
19
Chapter 5: The President and the national executive
20
Chapter 6: Provinces
21
Schedule 4: Concurrent functional areas of National and Provincial legislatures
22
Schedule 5: Functional areas of Provincial legislatures
23
Chapter 7: Local government
24
Chapter 8: Courts and administration of justice
25
Chapter 9: State institutions that support constitutional democracy
26
Chapter 10: Public administration
27
Chapter 11: Security services
28
Chapter 12: Traditional authorities
29
Chapter 13: Finance
30
Chapter 14: General provisions
31
HUMAN RIGHTS
32
What are human rights?
33
Indivisibility of rights
34
Rights and responsibilities
35
Conflicts in rights
36
International documents on human rights
37
Creating a human rights culture in South Africa
38
SUMMARY OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN BILL OF RIGHTS
39
Section 7: Introduction
40
Chapter 8: Application of the Bill of Rights
41
Section 9: Right to Equality
42
Section 10: Right to human dignity
43
Section 11: Right to life
44
Section 12: Freedom and security of the person
45
Section 13: Slavery, servitude and forced labour
46
Section 14: Right to privacy
47
Section 15: Freedom of religion, belief and opinion
48
Section 16: Freedom of speech and expression
49
Section 17: Freedom of assembly, demonstration picket and petition
50
Section 18: Freedom of association
51
Section 19: Political rights
52
Section 20: Citizenship
53
Section 21: Freedom of movement and residence
54
Section 22: Freedom of trade, occupation and profession
55
Section 23: Labour relations
56
Section 24: Environment
57
Section 25: Property
58
Section 26: Right of access to housing
59
Section 27: Right of access to health care, food, water and social security
60
Section 28: Children’s rights
61
Section 29; Education
62
Section 30: Language and culture
63
Section 31: Cultural, religious and linguistic communities
64
Section 32: Access to information
65
Section 33: Just administrative action
66
Section 34: Access to courts
67
Section 35: Arrested, detained and accused persons
68
Section 36: Limitations on rights
69
Section 37: States of emergency
70
Section 38: Enforcing rights
71
Section 39: Interpreting the Bill of Rights
72
PROTECTING HUMAN RIGHTS
73
The Public Protector
74
South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)
75
Commission on Gender Equality (CGE)
76
Auditor General
77
Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (Cultural Rights Commission)
78
Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)
79
Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA)
80
Land Claims Commission (LCC)
81
PROBLEMS
82
Problem 1: Taking a case to the South African Human Rights Commission
83
Problem 2: Making a complaint to the Public Protector
84
Problem 3: Taking a case to the Commission on Gender Equality
85
CHECKLISTS
86
Checklist: Reporting human rights complaints

What is a democracy?

Democracy means that everyone has a say in how the country is run. In a democracy, the government is put into power by its citizens. The adult citizens of a democracy elect their government. One way they do this is by choosing people to represent them in a parliament. In a multi-party system, the party that gets the majority votes governs the country.

CHARACTERISTICS THAT IDENTIFY A DEMOCRACY
Citizens can participate in government
It is everyone’s right and duty to participate in government.		Economic freedom
People can own property and businesses and they can choose their own work and join labour unions.
All people are equal before the law
There is no legal discrimination based on race, religion, gender or other reason. Groups and individuals have a right to their own cultures, languages, beliefs and so on.		Controlling abuse of power
There must be ways to prevent government officials from abusing their power. The courts are independent from the government, and there are other bodies that have the power to act against corrupt government officials.
Political tolerance
Various opinions, beliefs, cultures, religions and so on need to be tolerated. So, while the majority of the people rule in a democracy, the rights of the minority must still be protected.		Human rights
Democracies aim to respect and protect the human rights of all and often use a Bill of Rights to do so.
Accountability
Officials who are elected and appointed in government are accountable to the people for actions and decisions.		Multi-party system
A multi-party system means that more than one political party can participate in elections, so that people can choose who they want to represent them in government.
Transparency In a democracy, people and the media (newspapers, TV, radio) can get information about what government decisions are being made, by whom and for what reason.The rule of law
No one is above the law, including the president. This means that the law must treat everyone in an equal and fair way.
Regular, free and fair elections
Citizens choose their own representatives for government. They elect these officials in a free and fair way, without corruption, and votes are secret. Elections are held regularly.		The separation of powers between different arms of government
The Legislature (parliament), made up of people’s representatives, make the laws and policies. The Executive (cabinet) implement and oversee the public service. The Judiciary act as independent referees to interpret the law when there are disputes or conflicts, or someone breaks the law.

(See: Chapter 3: Democracy and Public Participation)