[Company name]
CSL2601
Assignment 2
Semester 2 2024 -
DUE 10
September 2024
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
, CSL2601 Assignment 2 Semester 2 2024 - DUE 10 September 2024
In the early 1990s when South Africa was contemplating transition to democracy, Wiechers
advanced the case for the establishment of a constitutional court. He argued that this court would
be able to protect and enforce human rights and liberties [and] to provide expert knowledge and
the political as well as socio-economic understanding which is needed to judge intricate
constitutional processes and issues.1 This view echoes the contemporary view that the
Constitution2 that was designed to revolutionise the South African state reflects the needs and
interests of all South Africans.3 In its articulation of a unique form of the separation of powers
doctrine4 and in pursuit of ensuring a modern, robust constitutional democracy, the judiciary has
viewed its role as complementary to (as opposed to distinct from) the legislative and executive
branches of the state. As Corder remarks, in its first 15 years, the Constitutional Court’s
judgments were ‘careful, wide, fair and at time courageous commitment to constitutional
principle and practice’.5 So determined is the judiciary to uphold constitutional principle and
practice that it has recently admonished the executive, with a court declaring that a particular
government department was ‘grossly non-compliant’ and its representatives had shown up late
for the court hearing.6 Some important developments in South African constitutional law are set
out below. First, for the first time in South Africa’s history, two judges and the Public Protector
were impeached. South Africa also has a multi-party government for the first time since the
advent of democracy thirty years ago. _________________ 1 Marinus Wiechers ‘A
constitutional court for South Africa’ in DJ van Vuuren et al South Africa in the Nineties (1991)
HSRC Publisher 290. 2 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. 3 Pierre de Vos &
Warren Freedman (eds) et al South African Constitutional Law in Context (2 ed Oxford
CSL2601
Assignment 2
Semester 2 2024 -
DUE 10
September 2024
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
, CSL2601 Assignment 2 Semester 2 2024 - DUE 10 September 2024
In the early 1990s when South Africa was contemplating transition to democracy, Wiechers
advanced the case for the establishment of a constitutional court. He argued that this court would
be able to protect and enforce human rights and liberties [and] to provide expert knowledge and
the political as well as socio-economic understanding which is needed to judge intricate
constitutional processes and issues.1 This view echoes the contemporary view that the
Constitution2 that was designed to revolutionise the South African state reflects the needs and
interests of all South Africans.3 In its articulation of a unique form of the separation of powers
doctrine4 and in pursuit of ensuring a modern, robust constitutional democracy, the judiciary has
viewed its role as complementary to (as opposed to distinct from) the legislative and executive
branches of the state. As Corder remarks, in its first 15 years, the Constitutional Court’s
judgments were ‘careful, wide, fair and at time courageous commitment to constitutional
principle and practice’.5 So determined is the judiciary to uphold constitutional principle and
practice that it has recently admonished the executive, with a court declaring that a particular
government department was ‘grossly non-compliant’ and its representatives had shown up late
for the court hearing.6 Some important developments in South African constitutional law are set
out below. First, for the first time in South Africa’s history, two judges and the Public Protector
were impeached. South Africa also has a multi-party government for the first time since the
advent of democracy thirty years ago. _________________ 1 Marinus Wiechers ‘A
constitutional court for South Africa’ in DJ van Vuuren et al South Africa in the Nineties (1991)
HSRC Publisher 290. 2 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. 3 Pierre de Vos &
Warren Freedman (eds) et al South African Constitutional Law in Context (2 ed Oxford
