Interview With Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga, Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa

Abstract

This chapter reflects on the post-apartheid epoch in the republic of South Africa, from the perspective of a multiplicity of changes that have occurred, including the fundamental transformation in the country’s constitutional order. Within the current order, the constitution is the supreme law of the land with judicial authority residing in the courts, of which the Constitutional Court is the apex court. South Africa no longer subscribes to the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, but instead under the 1996 Constitution, the republic is now a constitutional democracy. In the chapter, some of the important features of South Africa’s modern legal system have also been highlighted. One of the core features is that the country’s modern legal system is regarded as a hybrid one because it constitutes two formal legal systems existing harmoniously within the national legal structures. A second interlocking feature is that notwithstanding the transformational changes since the dawn of democracy, South Africa’s legal system continues to reflect, to some extent, the then dominant minority demographic culture, thinking, and articulation. The chapter also highlights pronouncements by the Constitutional Court on the importance of the executive arm of government fulfilling the justiciable rights guaranteed in the 1996 Constitution.