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The people shall govern: Constituent power and the South African Constitution

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / The South African negotiations process, in the true spirit of classical liberalism, emphasised juridical continuity, legality, and gradual political change. But in spite of this and the fact that South Africa’s constitution-making process is acclaimed as the most successful negotiated revolution, it is generally recognised that there is incongruity between the promise and hope brought about by South Africa’s constitution-making process and the political and social crises that ensued after the advent of constitutional democracy in the country. I argue in this analysis that the South African constitutional discourse must undergo a fundamental shift by abandoning the normative regulation of the constituent power of the people in order to allow for the people to truly govern. The acknowledgement of the possibility of the unregulated exercise of constituent power through people-driven initiatives can mitigate the current malaise facing South Africa’s constitutional democracy.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uwc/oai:etd.uwc.ac.za:11394/5625
Date January 2017
CreatorsMatakane, Gcina M.
Contributorsde Ville, Jacques
PublisherUniversity of the Western Cape
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
RightsUniversity of the Western Cape

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