New Constitution

Summary

Crafting a new constitution was a critical part of the negotiated political transition in South Africa, representing, as it did, a dramatic change from the politics of apartheid. In 1993, the Constitutional Assembly drafted an Interim Constitution and, following the April 1994 democratic elections, members of both houses of Parliament worked on a final constitution, which was agreed to two years later.

The new Constitution is based on the core values of human dignity and the advancement of human rights and freedoms; non-racialism and non-sexism; supremacy of the rule of law; universal adult suffrage; regular elections; and a multi-party system of democratic government. The Bill of Rights is the most far-reaching such document in the world, incorporating both individual rights and freedom of expression and socio-economic rights.

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