Interim Constitution (South Africa)

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Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993
Parliament of South Africa
Long title Act to introduce a new Constitution for the Republic of South Africa and to provide for matters incidental thereto.
Citation	Act 200 of 1993
Enacted by	Parliament of South Africa
Assented to	25 January 1994
Commenced	27 April 1994
Repealed	4 February 1997
Repeals
Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1983 Promotion of Bantu Self-government Act, 1959 Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act, 1970 Bantu Homelands Constitution Act, 1971
Repealed by
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996
Status: Repealed

The Interim Constitution was the fundamental law of South Africa from during the first non-racial general election on 27 April 1994 until it was superseded by the final constitution on 4 February 1997. As a transitional constitution it required the newly elected Parliament to also serve as a constituent assembly to adopt a final constitution. It made provision for a major restructuring of government as a consequence of the abolition of apartheid. It also introduced an entrenched bill of rights against which legislation and government action could be tested, and created the Constitutional Court with broad powers of judicial review.

An integral part of the negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa was the creation of a new, non-discriminatory constitution for the country. One of the major disputed issues was the process by which such a constitution would be adopted. The African National Congress (ANC) insisted that it should be drawn up by a democratically elected constituent assembly, while the governing National Party (NP) feared that the rights of minorities would not be protected in such a process, and proposed instead that the constitution be negotiated by consensus between the parties and then put to a referendum.^[1][2]

Formal negotiations began in December 1991 at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA). The parties agreed on a process, whereby a negotiated transitional constitution would provide for an elected constitutional assembly to draw up a permanent constitution.^[1] The CODESA negotiations broke down, however, after the second plenary session in May 1992. One of the major points of dispute was the size of the supermajority that would be required for the assembly to adopt the constitution: the NP wanted a 75 per cent requirement,^[2] which would effectively have given it a veto.^[1]

In April 1993, the parties returned to negotiations, in what was known as the Multi-Party Negotiating Process (MPNP). A committee of the MPNP proposed the development of a collection of "constitutional principles" with which the final constitution would have to comply, so that basic freedoms would be ensured and minority rights protected, without overly limiting the role of the elected constitutional assembly.^[2] Adopting this idea, the parties to the MPNP drew up the Interim Constitution, which was formally enacted by the apartheid-era Tricameral Parliament and came into force on 27 April 1994.

• Text of the 1993 Constitution at South African Government Information
• The full text of Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993 at Wikisource