ABSTRACT
This chapter notes that because of the twin legacies of colonialism and apartheid, South Africa merits special treatment. The nation has its separate colonial and apartheid histories, produced the globally respected icon Nelson Mandela, and has a history of influencing its neighbors’ political dynamics. Concentrating on these twin legacies, the chapter critically examines their impact on regular citizens. Using the major driving forces undergirding the rule of law identified in Chapter 2, the chapter dissects how the intersection of each driver, colonial legacy, and apartheid legacy influences the rule of law and impacts the lives of ordinary South Africans.
The chapter explains that creating the South African 1993 Interim Constitution was a long and complicated process. However, in the process of creating it, the Interim Constitution reflected inputs from ordinary South Africans, which the drafters and negotiating parties considered in completing the final constitution. The existing 1996 Constitution came into being after that process successfully concluded with decent and remarkable public input. One of this Constitution’s best provisions is the creation of a Constitutional Court which has lived up to expectation as being a model for an independent judiciary. The South African Police Service is still struggling to shake the twin legacies of colonialism and apartheid. In contrast, the South African military seems not to be a menace to ordinary South Africans. In part because corruption seems to be flourishing in high places, the culture of corruption seems to be taking serious hold in South Africa. However, despite having the best anti-corruption agencies, the nation suffers from corruption which seems endemic among the governing elites and does not bode well for maintaining an environment that subscribes to the rule of law. Overall and relatively, it appears that regular South Africans are protected from arbitrary rule of law violations.
