An empirical study of the early cases in the pilot equality courts established in terms of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000

Louis Botha,Anton Kok

doi:10.17159/1996-2096/2019/v19n1a15

Abstract

An empirical study of the early cases in the pilot equality courts established in terms of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000

Highlights

South Africa seemingly is the only African country that has put in place an all-encompassing legislative framework combating state and private discrimination based on an open-ended list of prohibited grounds. (An exhaustive scoping exercise of African antidiscrimination legislation falls outside of the domain of the article.) Many African countries’ constitutions contain anti-discrimination principles, but these are usually not mirrored in domestic laws
In this article we focus on one of the South African legislative tools – the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act7 – and examine the early cases lodged at the pilot equality courts https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/AfricaRegion/Pages/SouthernAfricaSummary 10.aspx
Kruger conducted a study in 2007 and 2008 regarding the number of complaints, relating to racism, that had been received by the equality courts situated in Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town in order to determine how the Act was implemented, and found that relatively few complaints had been made to the equality courts since their inception and that this limited the opportunities of these courts to establish themselves as meaningful catalysts of social change.[27]

Summary

In this article the authors consider the early complaints lodged at the pilot equality courts. Since their inception the equality courts have been underutilised. These early complaints are considered against three themes relating to effective legislation: (1) the legislature must be realistic; (2) different groups of people will be influenced in different ways by a new law; and (3) Parliament should see to it that its laws are popularised.

Introduction value of research

The legislature must be realistic

Different groups of people will be influenced in different ways by a new law

Parliament should see to it that its laws are popularised52

Conclusion