This dissertation is a study of the ambit of the right to food as it is contained in the South African Bill of Rights and the steps needed to realise the right. Existing and potential food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition provide the social context for this research. The rationale for conducting the research is primarily two-fold. Firstly, the access to sufficient food is an indispensable right for everyone living in this country. Secondly, the right to food in South Africa has not been subject to extensive academic study to date. Socio-economic rights are fully justiciable rights in this country, equally worthy of protection as civil and political rights. Furthermore, socio-economic rights (like the right to food) are interdependent with civil and political rights: neither category can meaningful exist without realisation of the other. The right to sufficient food is found in section 27(1)(b) of the South African Constitution. Children have the additional right to basic nutrition in terms of section 28(1)(c). The right to sufficient food is subject to the internal limitation of section 27(2) that the state must take reasonable measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of the right. Furthermore, as with all rights in the Bill of Rights, both these rights are subject to the general limitations clause found in section 36. There is international law authority in various human rights instruments for the protection of the right to food and what the right entails. In accordance with section 39 of the Constitution, such international law must be considered when interpreting the right to food. It is argued that a generous and broad interpretation of food rights in the Constitution is called for. Existing legislation, state policies and programmes are analysed in order to gauge whether the state is adequately meeting its right to food obligations. Furthermore, the state’s food programmes must meet the just administrative action requirements of lawfulness, reasonableness and procedural fairness of section 33 of the Constitution and comply with the Promotion of Just Administrative Justice Act. The dissertation analyses the disparate and unco-ordinated food and law policies in existence, albeit that the National Food Security Draft Bill offers the hope of some improvement. Particular inadequacies highlighted in the state’s response to the country’s food challenges are a lack of any feeding schemes in high schools and insufficient food provision in emergency situations. Social assistance grants available in terms of the Social Assistance Act are considered due to their potential to make food available to grant recipients. On the one hand there is shown to be a lack of social assistance for unemployed people who do not qualify for any form of social grant. On the other hand, whilst presently underutilised and not always properly administered, social relief of distress grants are shown to have the potential to improve access to sufficient food for limited periods of time. Other suggested means of improving access to sufficient food are income generation strategies, the introduction of a basic income grant and the creation of food framework legislation. When people are denied their food rights, this research calls for creative judicial remedies as well as effective enforcement of such court orders. However, it is argued that education on what the right to food entails is a precondition for people to seek legal recourse to protect their right to food. Due to a lack of case authority on food itself, guidance is sought from the findings of South Africa’s Constitutional Court in analogous socio-economic rights challenges. Through this analysis this dissertation considers the way forward, either in terms of direct court action or via improved access to other rights which will improve food access.

The Criminal Law Amendment Act introduced a scheme where minimum sentences are prescribed for serious offences into the South African Criminal Law. The limitations put on the courts’ sentencing discretion were not received with unanimous approval from all quarters. The Constitutional Court declared the general working of the Act to be constitutional soon after its inception. Specific provisions pertaining to certain offences remained unpopular. The hefty sentence of 15 years imprisonment prescribed for the possession of a semi-automatic firearm is put forward as an example in this regard. High Courts avoid the minimum sentence prescribed for this offence by using different interpretational methods. Despite the sense of animosity towards the unfair contents of this provision, no ruling is made on the constitutionality thereof. An apparent deference towards the legislature could be detected on the part of the judiciary. South African jurisprudence discourages our courts to rule on the constitutionality of a law. It is only done when the defect could not be remedied by any other available means. The reluctance of our courts to make a ruling on the constitutionality of the semi-automatic provision does not promote legal certainty. High Courts attach different interpretations to the “true intention” of the legislature in order to bypass this provision. Logic dictates that inexperienced presiding officers with inferior interpretational skills would continue to hand down the minimum sentence while it remains on the law books. A sentence of fifteen years is also prescribed for robbery with aggravating circumstances. The existing common law on the interpretation of the definition of this offence provides for a wide range of human conduct to be included. Case law could be expected where the courts deviate from the prescribed sentence on a regular basis. This unscientific approach should be discouraged and a rethinking of the boundaries of this offence is suggested. The Act is doing more harm than good to our Criminal Law. The legislature could still provide other visible measures against serious crime without invading the sentencing discretion of the judiciary.

This treatise begins with a discussion of different clauses of the Bill of Rights in the South African Constitution and the land reform policies of the South African government. The inequality and injustice caused by decades of apartheid land law forms the background of the land reform programme. The treatise addresses the consequences of this legacy on the implementation of the South African Constitution including the right to property. The discussion includes the three key elements of the land reform programme namely restitution, redistribution and tenure reform. The content of this treatise ranges over these three elements of land reform, applying constitutional issues to the relevant case law, The balancing and the reconciliation of rights and interest between the individual and the public in a just manner will be the barometer. The conclusion shows that the Constitution both protects existing rights and authorises the promotion of land reform within the framework of Section 25 of the Constitution, and that every aspect of the property clause has to be regarded as part of a constitional effort in balancing individual interest and public interest in terms of a constitutional order. It is my sincere hope that this treatise will contribute toward the achievement of equity, stability and by the values of an open and democratic society based on human dignity, freedom and human rights.

"The interest in food and its impact on, and relationship with, overall development only came in the late 1990s with the World Food Summit in Rome in 1996. It was only in this period that "food insecurity" was pinpointed as the root cause of underdevelopment-related problems. The causes for "food insecurity" themselves were identified and lack of food as such was not among the first problems: discrimination, misconceived policies and many others were. Even then food security issues were linked with poverty reduction and development as a whole, making food mainly a development issue and thus considering that dealing with one meant dealing with the other. This led to the adoption of what we now call Poverty Reducation Strategy Papers, ideas that first were initiated in the late 1990s. The adoption of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers came about as a result of the growing need for a concise, target-oriented and country-specific policy for development. They have as a key objective to "develop and implement more effective strategies to fight poverty". Still, these PRSPs are a result of long studies on "effective strategies" that stretch along many years. The what, why and when of PRSPs will be seen in detail in the following sections of this paper. One of the major areas in which most of the PRSPs focus upon, is the reduction of food insecurity. The objective of this paper is to assess just how effective these papers have been in doing so and what is the future, immediate and long term, of these papers. Is it enough to address food security issues along with poverty reduction strategies when the effectiveness of the strategies themselves is still in doubt? The paper seeks to answer this question. To this effect, the history of the right to food in the United Nations human rights system, as well as the African human right system, is outlined in greater datail. The right to food as it stands now and the current understanding of "right to food" is then set out. In order to show the relationship between food, poverty and poverty reduction strategy papers, the reasons and events preceding the creation of PRSPs will be summarized. The next step is to analyze whether PRSPs properly integrates the "current understanding" of food, food insecurity and right to food (why/why not?). In particular two examples of approaches to the right to food will be examined: the Ethiopian and the South African examples, in order to provide a comparison of two different approaches towards the implementation of the right to food: the PRSP approach as is the case in the Ethiopian example, and the monitoring, justiciability and human rights approach as in South Africa." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2003. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

In Africa, the fight against poverty has a great deal in common with the struggle for political and economic security. For many migrant workers around the continent and elsewhere, the need for socio-economic security serves as the underlining motive for migration to boundaries beyond their own, in search of ‘greener pastures’ - a life of dignity, respect and socio-economic security. The high level of infrastructure, economic and political stability remains an attractive incentive for irregular migrants to migrate to South Africa. Thousands of migrant workers make annually the journey to South Africa with the hope of finding a better life. However, their arrival in South Africa marks the beginning of an even more tenacious struggle against unimaginable odds. For many irregular migrants, the dream of a better life soon becomes a nightmare highlighted by constant struggle against xenophobia, police brutality, exploitation by unscrupulous employers, marginalisation and disregard for fundamental human rights by the state. / Mini Dissertation (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2011. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / nf2012 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) was created amidst great criticism to the ineffectiveness of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCmHPR) in protecting human rights on the content. After much debate, spanning four decades the Protocol on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Protocol) was adopted by the Organisation of African Unity Assembly and entered into force on the 25th of January 2004. Later the 4th AU summit in January 2006 elected the eleven judges of the Court. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2011. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / nf2012 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

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Text in Afrikaans / Bophuthatswana het gedurende 1977 tot stand gekom as 'n onafhanklike staat. In die Grondwet daarvan is 'n uitvoerige menseregtehandves vervat wat as hoogste reg gegeld het - alle wetgewing in stryd daarmee was nietig. Die hoop was dat Bophuthatswana sou ontwikkel as 'n groeipuntvir die handhawing van menseregte in Suidelike Afrika. Aanvanklik het die howe gevolg gegee aan die bepalings van die menseregtehandves. Algaande is daar teruggekeer na 'n letterknegtige soeke na die wil van die wetgewer, wat daartoe gelei het dat die burger se menseregte deur die howe misken is. Die laaste beslissings van die howe verteenwoordig 'n terugkeer na die ware rol van die howe in 'n menseregtebestel. Die Wetgewende en Uitvoerende gesag was outokraties en het geen besef gehad van die essensie van menseregte nie. Die ondervinding in Bophuthatswana is grootliks dieselfde as elders in Afrika, waar menseregte vertrap is. Teen hierdie agtergrond word die grondwetlike toekoms van Suid-Afrika in oenskou geneem. / Bophuthatswana came into existence as an independent state during 1977. A justiciable bill of rights provided for judicial review. The hope existed that Bophuthatswana would be a growing point for the protection of human rights in Southern Africa. Although earlier judgments of the courts were promising and augured well for the future protection of human rights later judgments have reverted to the positivistic approach to constitutional interpretation. This led to the bill of rights being rendered inoperative. However, in the latest and most recent judgements there was a return to the bold and innovative interpretation of the first decisions. The legislative and executive branches of state was autocratic to the core as experienced elsewhere in Africa. The constitutional future of South Africa is evaluated against this background. / Law / LL.M.

Text in Afrikaans / Bophuthatswana het gedurende 1977 tot stand gekom as 'n onafhanklike staat. In die Grondwet daarvan is 'n uitvoerige menseregtehandves vervat wat as hoogste reg gegeld het - alle wetgewing in stryd daarmee was nietig. Die hoop was dat Bophuthatswana sou ontwikkel as 'n groeipuntvir die handhawing van menseregte in Suidelike Afrika. Aanvanklik het die howe gevolg gegee aan die bepalings van die menseregtehandves. Algaande is daar teruggekeer na 'n letterknegtige soeke na die wil van die wetgewer, wat daartoe gelei het dat die burger se menseregte deur die howe misken is. Die laaste beslissings van die howe verteenwoordig 'n terugkeer na die ware rol van die howe in 'n menseregtebestel. Die Wetgewende en Uitvoerende gesag was outokraties en het geen besef gehad van die essensie van menseregte nie. Die ondervinding in Bophuthatswana is grootliks dieselfde as elders in Afrika, waar menseregte vertrap is. Teen hierdie agtergrond word die grondwetlike toekoms van Suid-Afrika in oenskou geneem. / Bophuthatswana came into existence as an independent state during 1977. A justiciable bill of rights provided for judicial review. The hope existed that Bophuthatswana would be a growing point for the protection of human rights in Southern Africa. Although earlier judgments of the courts were promising and augured well for the future protection of human rights later judgments have reverted to the positivistic approach to constitutional interpretation. This led to the bill of rights being rendered inoperative. However, in the latest and most recent judgements there was a return to the bold and innovative interpretation of the first decisions. The legislative and executive branches of state was autocratic to the core as experienced elsewhere in Africa. The constitutional future of South Africa is evaluated against this background. / Law / LL.M.

The concern with the relevance of human rights to the socio-economic and political development in South Africa is of threefold account, namely human rights, socio-economic and political development, and South Africa. Human rights have been consistently applied as a common standard of achievement in the realisation that development cannot be implemented in pure economic terms only, but implies the 'duties of all people towards all other people. For rights only come into their own through practice, the interaction of socio-economic and political facts with values. The importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of I 0 December 1948 is of primary account in this regard. This implies the right to development of all people as well as the classical meaning of equity. The main social function of human rights is to become essential ingredients in legal, political and social reality in each and every country. The socio-economic implementation of human rights in the entire world includes the facts and peculiarities of South Africa in the context of ethnic pluralism. This covers the unrealistic overtones of apartheid, the unabated pressure of the United Nations and the achievement of the new South Africa. There is a great difference between merely criticising and getting things done. An important issue is the sustainability of the RDP, with its emphasis on Mandela's linkage XI between human rights, the rule of law and economic prosperity. COSATU with its unrealistic trade unionism however, remains the chief stumbling block to the unfettered free market economies and investments which are required for genuine job creation. Short of this the RDP and GEAR, which have got off the ground, are in danger of collapse. It is recommended that the ANC should work towards a genuine multi-party democracy at a realistic level where honest criticism is respected. The universal implications of human rights require that people should not be protected overduly simply because they are black at the expense of others who simply happen to be white. Some people are not more equal than others merely by virtue of being white or black. / Political Science / D. Litt et Phil. (Politics)