Comparative Constitutional
Law
Class 21
November 3, 2008
South Africa: Origins and Structure of
its Constitutional System
South Africa
• Slightly less than
twice the size of the
State of Texas
• Population: over 44
million
• AIDS rate over 20%
• Republic (since 1961)
Federal System
• 9 provinces; Eastern
Cape, Free State,
Gauteng, KwaZuluNatal, Limpopo,
Mpumalanga, NorthWest, Northern Cape,
Western Cape
• Pretoria
(administrative
capital); Cape Town
(legislative capital)
Diversity
• Ethnic groups: black
African 79%, white
9.6%, colored 8.9%,
Indian/Asian 2.5%
(2001 census)
Diverse population
• Linguistic: IsiZulu 23.8%, IsiXhosa 17.6%,
Afrikaans 13.3%, Sepedi 9.4%, English 8.2%,
Setswana 8.2%, Sesotho 7.9%, Xitsonga 4.4%,
other 7.2% (2001 census)
• Religious: Zion Christian 11.1%,
Pentecostal/Charismatic 8.2%, Catholic 7.1%,
Methodist 6.8%, Dutch Reformed 6.7%, Anglican
3.8%, other Christian 36%, Islam 1.5%, other
2.3%, unspecified 1.4%, none 15.1% (2001
census)
Most developed African country
• Literacy rate: almost 90%
History of South Africa
• African inhabitants for 100,000 years
(including San, Khoekhoe, Bantu
Xhosa, Zulu)
• European settlement began in 1652
with Dutch at Cape of Good Hope
• Slavery
• Conflict with Khoekhoe and later Xhosa
as settlement moved east.
English South Africa
• 1806: English take
over Cape Colony
• Continuing conflict
with Xhosa
• Arrival of
missionaries and
abolitionists
Afrikaner Great Trek
• Descendents of
Dutch, French,
German settlers
trekked north to found
own republics
• Land where they
settled was not, as
they believed, empty
• Discovery of gold
(1886) and diamonds
(1867)
Great Trek
• Founding of 2 Boer
colonies: Orange Free
State (independent 1854)
and ZAR (Transvaal)
(1856)
• Afrikaners moved into
Natal
• Conflict with Zulu: Battle
of Blood River;
• British annexed Natal
• Conflict between Boers
and British (First Boer
War 1880-1881)
Second Boer War 1899-1902
• Battle between British
and Boers
• Use of concentration
camps (by the British).
• 26 000 Boer women and
children and 14 000 black
Africans died in appalling
conditions
• The war ended in Boer
defeat at the Peace of
Vereeniging in 1902.
Union of South Africa: 1910
• New Constitution
• Racist treatment of Africans and Indians:
hopes for equal rights at time of Union
were dashed: repressive laws
• 1912: formation of ANC
• Gandhi active in Indian resistance. Left
country in 1914
• Afrikaner polarization: formation of NP
Union-1940s
•
•
•
•
Large strikes ; formation of unions
Smuts PM 1919-1924
Hertzog PM (NP/Labour coalition) 1924
Hertzog/Smuts coalition 1933 (fused
Union Party); Malan’s “purified”NP broke
away in 1934
• Union party: much racial repression
• 1934 independence from Britain (Treaty of
Westminster)
Jan Christian Smuts
• PM 1919-1924
• Also 1939-1948
• After the Second World
War, he established and
supported the Fagan
Commission,, which
advocated the
abandonment of all
segregation in South
Africa.
• Wrote preamble to UN
Charter
• Lost 1948 general
election
1940s
• Rapid industrialization, but blacks
excluded from skilled employment
• 1944: ANC Youth League founded
(Nelson Mandela secretary)
• 1948 NP comes to power. Remains in
power until 1994.
• Apartheid becomes official government
philosophy: now apartheid becomes de
jure
1950s: increasing repression and
resistance
• 1950: The Group Areas Act, Population
Registration Act
• 1952: pass laws restrict black movement;
Defiance campaign
• 1953: Separate Amenities Act; Malan retired and
JG Strijdom became Prime Minister.
• Government changes composition of Senate to
remove coloureds from voter rolls
• 1955: ANC Freedom Charter
• 1958: Strijdom replaced by Verwoerd
• 1959: Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act
1960s more repression and conflict
• 1961 Trial of 156 ANC leaders charged
with treason. All are acquitted.
• Sharpeville massacre. ANC, PAC banned;
introduction of State of Emergency and
detention without trial
• What did the NP government do in 1961
that increased SA international isolation?
South African Republic
• Verwoerd removes SA from Commonwealth
• Adopts 1961 Republican Constitution
• UN General Assembly calls for economic
sanctions against SA
• 1963 Mandela and other ANC leaders arrested
at Rivonia farm
• 1964: “Rivonia trial” Mandela sentenced to life
imprisonment. Taken to Robben Island where
he spends the next 18 years.
Robben Island
Bram Fischer: Afrikaner
revolutionary
• Rhodes scholar
• Leader of defense team
during Rivonia trial
• Commuist; Went
underground after
charged with membership
in banned organization
• Arrested in 1966;
sentenced to life
imprisonment and died in
custody
1966
• 1966: Vorster becomes PM after Verwoerd
is assassinated in Parliament
• Segregation is more strictly enforced
• ANC regroups outside SA
• 1976 Soweto massacre
Steve Biko: A death that shocked
the world
• 1977 Steven Biko
dies in police custody
due to brutal
treatment
• 1978: PW Botha
becomes PM
1980s continuing escalation of
violence
• 1983 Constitution
• 1984 boycotts of coloured
and Indian elections
• Increasing violence; near
constant states of
emergency
• 1989 start of secret
negotiations between
government and Mandela
• 1989 FW de Klerk
becomes PM after
Botha’s stroke. De Klerk
head of verligte elements
in NP.