ABSTRACT
The one great issue that overshadows all others in the distracted world today is the issue between constitutionalism and arbitrary government. This chapter focuses on to new field of South African history by raising the question of the Afrikaner tradition or traditions concerning constitutionalism. On 23rd February, 1854, Sir George Clerk, "Her Majesty's Special Commissioner for settling and adjusting the affairs of the Orange River Territory", signed the Bloemfontein Convention whereby they became "a free and independent people" and their government "a free and independent government". The constitutional history of the South African Republic is strikingly different from that of the Orange Free State and the differences started at the very beginning. In the first phase of its history, therefore, the Volksraad of the South African Republic acted as though it were above all laws. The people alone possessed the sovereign power in the South African Republic.
