The 1993 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa - The Constitutional Court

The South African interim constitution (Act 200 of 1993) provides inter alia for a supposedly independent Constitutional Court which is mandated to act as the guardian of the post-apartheid constitutional dispensation. This Court is granted extensive powers of judicial review by the interim constitution. In an attempt to make a distinct break from the previous political and constitutional dispensation, a centralized constitutional court model has been chosen. This has been done in spite of the country's common-law tradition and a general preference for a decentralized model which existed in the early periods of the 1990-93 transition period. The appointment process spelt out in the interim constitution appears unlikely to guarantee a politically independent court. This is borne out by the initial composition of the court which is strongly biased in favour of the majority party in the Government of National Unity, the African National Congress. A high degree of judicial activism and the politicization of the court and South African constitutional law appears likely.