Book launch – ‘Reflections on the Bill of Rights’ - Wednesday, 7th December 2016, 18h00 at Parliament
Parliament of South Africa will be launching ‘Reflections on the Bill of Rights’ on Wednesday, 7 December 2016. The keynote address will be delivered by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Past and present lawmakers, lawyers and academics provide diverse individual, party-political and technical insights into the drafting of the Bill of Rights as experienced by those who were active participants on the remarkable journey to constitutional democracy in South Africa.
The book is an account of how MPs and technical advisers spent long hours negotiating, persuading each other and debating the content of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. The book captures the spirit under which the Bill of Rights was adopted.
Going home in the early hours only to snatch a few hours’ sleep became the norm during those days. The Bill of Rights lies at the heart of the new political dispensation.
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa actually dubbed this the ‘Birth Certificate’ of the Nation as it protects the powers and privileges of all peoples who live in South Africa.
The book demonstrates that the 1996 Constitution was the product of the hard work of women and men in the Constitutional Assembly, most of whom saw Parliament for the first time in 1994. Above all, many of them absolutely had neither the experience in nor exposure to any form of governance prior to 1994.
The book contains interesting behind-the-scenes anecdotes as told by some of the key participants in the constitution-making processes in South Africa.
This book is a timely publication as it coincides with the 20th Anniversary of the promulgation of the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. The launch is part of a series of planned events to celebrate 20 years of the Constitution.
