"In some countries the Constitution only formalises, in a legal instrument, a historical consensus of values and aspirations evolved incrementally from a stable and unbroken past to accommodate the needs of the future. The South African Constitution is different: it retains from the past only what is defensible and represents a decisive break from, and a ringing rejection of, that part of the past which is disgracefully racist, authoritarian, insular, and repressive and a vigorous identification of and commitment to a democratic, universalistic, caring and aspirationally egalitarian ethos expressly articulated in the Constitution. The contrast between the past which it repudiates and the future to which it seeks to commit the nation is stark and dramatic."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Ismail Mahomed, State v. Makwanyane, 1995 (3) SA 391 (CC)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Constitution_of_South_Africa
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Constitution of South Africa
1 quote on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Constitution of South Africa →
Related Quotes
"It will dawn on them that over the body of the woman silence is being drawn like a blanket."
"In an article written for the Washington Post, Smith claimed that 'rape is endemic' in South African culture, and tha…"
"Many forms of sexual violence, particularly sexual harassment and forms of sexual coercion that do not involve physic…"
"I met much evidence to show that white men's ideals of justice in South Africa are becoming corrupted by contact with…"
"Where feudalism is concrete and organic, with man dominated by the image of the land, capitalism is abstract and calc…"
"Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder. In the Middle Ages when the feudal lords who inhabi…"
"[W]e have all heard how Mr. Cobden, who is a very eminent person, has said, in a very memorable speech, that England …"
"The principle of the feudal system, the principle which was practically operated upon, was the noblest principle, the…"
"Feudalism? Sometimes it referred to the power of an all-mighty Emperor to distribute favors; sometimes it referred to…"
"Studying Russian history from the West European perspective, one also becomes conscious of the effect that the absenc…"