Section 1 of the Constitution proclaims that South Africa is founded upon certain values, one of them being “supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law”. Section 2 emphasises this, providing that law or conduct that is not consistent with the Constitution is invalid, and that obligations imposed by the Constitution must be fulfilled.

Section 7(2) goes on to place a special responsibility on the state to “respect, protect, promote and fulfil” Constitutional rights, and section 8(1) says that the Bill of Rights “binds the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and all organs of state”.

But increasingly, it seems, government is deviating from its constitutional duties under these two sections. Rather than being the champion of the Constitution, some of its policy and legislative decisions suggest that it sees the Constitution as an obstacle to be circumvented or even to be ignored entirely.

Paper by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference Parliamentary Liaison Office