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10 S. Afr. J. on Hum. Rts. 31 (1994)
A Bridge to Where - Introducing the Interim Bill of Rights

handle is hein.journals/soafjhr10 and id is 39 raw text is: A BRIDGE TO WHERE? INTRODUCING THE INTERIM BILL OF RIGHTS ETIENNE MUREINIK* INTRODUCTION What is the point of our Bill of Rights? The Bill is Chapter 3 of the interim Constitution,1 which declares itself to be aspiring to be 'a historic bridge between the past of a deeply divided society characterized by strife, conflict, untold suffering and injustice, and a future founded on the recognition of human rights, democracy and peaceful co-existence and development opportunities for all South Africans, irrespective of colour, race, class, belief or sex'.2 If this bridge is successfully to span the open sewer of violent and contentious transition, those who are entrusted with its upkeep will need to understand very clearly what it is a bridge from, and what a bridge to. BSc LLB (Witwatersrand) BCL (Oxon), Professor of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. 1 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 200 of 1993. The interim Constitution emerged from the Multi-party Negotiating Process (MPNP) at the World Trade Centre in Kempton Park during 1993. Political approval of the Constitution was the responsibility of a body called the Negotiating Council, on which all the political parties participating in the MPNP were represented. What the Council approved was enacted by Parliament, with relatively minor amendments. The initial drafting was the responsibility of two committees: the Technical Committee on Constitutional Issues and the Technical Committee on Fundamental Rights during the Transition. The latter was responsible for Chapter 3 - the Bill of Rights - and the former for the rest of the Constitution. This division of labour is visible in the final product. Thus, for instance, (a) Chapter 3 declares itself binding only on all legislative and executive organs of state (s 7(1)); but Chapter 1 declares the Constitution as a whole to be binding on all legislative, executive and judicial organs of state (s 4(2)); and (b) Chapter 3 gives '[alny superior court' competence to inquire into the validity of the declaration of a state of emergency and any action taken under it (s 34(3)), questions which plainly engage the interpretation, protection and enforcement of the Constitution; but by Chapter 7 the Appellate Division, a superior court, is deprived of jurisdiction over any matter within the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court (s 101(5)), and the latter court is given jurisdiction over 'all matters relating to the interpretation, protection and enforcement' of the Constitution (s 98(2)). Because of dissatisfaction with some of the earlier drafts of the Technical Committee on Fundamental Rights during the Transition, an Ad Hoc Committee, consisting of lawyers representing certain parties on the Negotiating Council, was formed. The Ad Hoc Committee had a hand in redrafting some of the clauses in the Bill. 2 These words appear in the postamble to the Constitution, entitled 'National Unity and Reconcilia- tion'.

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