admin

Week Two

Week Two 7 – 11 July 1996 Jay Naidoo at the launch of COSATU, Durban. Paul Weinberg / Africa Media Online The labour provisions that had nearly brought down the Constitutional Assembly (CA) negotiations once again came under fire, this time in the court setting. Advocate Malcolm Wallis, for Business South Africa, sensitively dropped the …

Week Two Read More »

The Proceedings

The Proceedings The Constitutional Assembly appointed a team of advocates to defend the draft text. Advocate George Bizos, a leading human rights advocate who had been involved in many high-profile political cases against the apartheid government, led a team consisting of Wim Trengove, Marumo Moerane, Nona Goso and Khomotso Moroka. Forty-eight advocates represented the objectors, …

The Proceedings Read More »

Submission Process

Submission Process Mirroring the Constitutional Assembly’s drive for transparency and public participation, the Court extended an open invitation to all South Africans to submit their objections. The certification process also provided an opportunity for the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) to rejoin the constitutional debates. Although it had not participated in the process of formulating the …

Submission Process Read More »

Deadline Day

DEADLINE DAY The morning of Wednesday, 8 May was grey and wintry in Cape Town. Outside the Parliament building, television crews jostled for the best positions and buses of school children arrived from all over the city to bear witness to the moment. Cyril Ramaphosa, Leon Wessels and Hassen Ebrahim waited for the MPs to …

Deadline Day Read More »

1 Day Away

1 DAY AWAY I know it’s late but just twenty minutes more, just twenty minutes – for our Constitution which is for the next twenty years, no, fifty years, 100 years, 200 years. While the political parties were urgently engaged in bilateral and multilateral meetings, the IFP met elsewhere in the Parliament building to prepare …

1 Day Away Read More »

EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE

Audio Visual

President Mandela gives his State of the Nation address in Parliament. Mandela ends his address with the words, “Let us all get down to work”.

“We must construct that people-centred society of freedom in such a manner that it guarantees the political and the human rights of all our citizens.”– President Mandela, extract from State of the Nation Address, 24 May 1994

President Nelson Mandela announces his cabinet. It includes members of the African National Congress, National Party and Inkatha Freedom Party.

“There was pride in serving in the first democratic government in South Africa, and then the additional pride of serving under the iconic leadership of Nelson Mandela … [He] represented the hopes of not just our country, but of oppressed, marginalised and the poor in the world.”– Jay Naidoo, then Minister of RDP housing
“We place our vision of a new constitutional order for South Africa on the table not as conquerors, prescribing to the conquered. We speak as fellow citizens to heal the wounds of the past with the intent of constructing a new order based on justice for all.”– President Nelson Mandela, 10 May 1994