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18 Major Changes Guaranteed in the new South African constitution

18 Major Changes Guaranteed in the new South African constitution On this page, we go through more than two significant improvements that the new South African constitution guarantees. Do you realize that South Africa has previously had three different constitutions? Namely:

the 1910 Constitution that established the South African Union, the 1961 Constitution that established the South African Republic, and the 1983 Constitution that established three chambers of Parliament.

However, these constitutions only permitted a tiny portion of South Africans to vote and they never adequately reflected or safeguarded the rights of the majority of South Africans. A new Constitution had to be drafted before democratic elections could be conducted in April 1994. All South African political parties participated in this during the discussions at the World Trade Center. The Interim Constitution is the name given to this document. Up to the adoption of the New Constitution, South Africa is governed under the Interim Constitution.

 

Watch: Episode 1: South Africa’s Constitution

18 Major Changes Guaranteed in the new South African Constitution

A constitution usually covers:

1. the type of government which will be used in the country (for example, democratic government);
2. the land that will be in the country;
3. the national symbols which will be used (for example, the flag and the national anthem);
4. the languages which will be used;
5. what the different provinces will look like;
6. who a citizen of the country is;
7. how the different branches of government (the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary) will be made up;
8. what the powers of each branch of government will be, and what the limits of these powers will be;
9. how the National, Provincial and Local levels of government will be made up;
10. what the powers of each level of government will be, and what the limits of these powers will be;
11. how the government will be chosen and how often elections will take place;
12. the human rights which will be recognised and protected by the government (these rights are usually included in a document called a Bill of Rights, which is part of the constitution itself);
13. what institutions there will be to protect people’s human rights and to protect people from abuse of power by the government;
14. how the police and armed forces will be made up and what the powers of these will be;
15. how the public administration will be made up and how it will be run;
16. how the money which is collected from the people of the country will be used (for example, taxes and fines);
17. how to make sure that the government is using public money properly and not wasting or stealing it; and
18. how the constitution can be changed.

Sources

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