Public confidence in the Constitutional Court is key to its legitimacy.
Felix Dlangamandla/AFP via Getty Images.
The court covered itself in glory in the first 15 years, but its performance has been patchy since then, coinciding with Jacob Zuma’s presidency.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán during a meeting in the Oval Office on May 13, 2019, in Washington, D.C.
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One of Donald Trump’s favorite politicians is the Hungarian authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán. Would a country led again by Trump embrace similar antidemocratic politics?
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The judgment will also benefit spouses in Muslim marriages, which were legally recognised in a 2022 Constitutional Court judgment.
The law requires that all sim cards in South Africa be registered.
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The justice ministry had more than enough time to make the law constitutional. Failure to do so is an indictment on its leadership in the process.
Typical apartheid-era houses in Soweto, South Africa.
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The transfer of township rental houses to inhabitants did not necessarily give families greater security. “Family houses” were frequently acquired by individuals.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa.
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The impeachment process could derail Ramaphosa’s political career and seriously hurt the governing ANC’s electoral prospects in 2024.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma appearing in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in 2020 on charges of corruption.
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Former South African president Zuma is trying to turn the contestation of a court hearing into an all-out war and chill those who pursue justice against him.
Raymond Zondo, South Africa’s new chief justice.
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Zondo’s career is made up of a tapestry of highlights, from lawyer to senior judge. He has written more than 200 judgments.
President of South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal Mandisa Maya has been recommended as the country’s next Chief Justice.
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The egregious failures in the Judicial Service Commission’s process have muddied the water and complicated the President’s decision-making.
Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng presiding at South Africa’s Constitutional Court in 2017.
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The Chief Justice needs to have a single-minded and unyielding commitment to constitutional democracy and constitutional values, including social justice.
South Africa’s Constitutional Court in session in 2018.
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South Africa’s Constitutional Court should offer no apology for its split judgments.
South African soldiers interrogate a pedestrian outside a mall in Soweto.
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After 1994 efforts were made to embed democracy. The focus was on policy and institution-building. What was missing was ensuring all South Africans were on board.
ANC campaigners at voting station in November 2020.
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The existing electoral system has attracted extensive criticism for rendering elected representatives unaccountable to those who elected them.
Protesters clash with police in February in Cape Town over student funding.
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Instead of being a democratic right and legitimate form of expression, protests have increasingly been framed as threats to national security.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma addresses supporters after one of several court appearances on corruption charges.
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The former president is in a corner and largely isolated. His only option is to stir the pot so much that it gives him some kind of bargaining power.
Judge Raymond Zondo, chair of the commission investigating grand corruption in South Africa, has been too polite with former state president Zuma.
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The Constitutional Court described Zuma’s lack of cooperation with the commission as “reprehensible”.
Thuli Madonsela, professor of law and former Public Protector of South Africa.
EFE-EPA
The first of a series of fatal flaws in the idea is about where to draw the line.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma at the Zondo Commission in July 2020.
EFE-EPA/Mike Hutchings
Claiming a right to determine reality by mere say-so is becoming increasingly commonplace, but we should never get used to it.
The child’s right to be heard applies to private schools just as it does to state schools.
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A Constitutional Court ruling sheds light on the relationship between private schools and children’s constitutional rights.
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South Africa’s Constitutional Court verdict is possibly a defining moment for South Africa’s electoral system.