Fostering constitutionalism : the role of the judiciary in Southern Africa

• Published date: 01 November 2011
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC129935
• Pages: 131-138
• Author: Rizine R. Mzikamanda
• Date: 01 November 2011

FOSTERING CONSTITUTIONALISM: THE

ROLE OF THE JUDICIARY IN SOUTHERN

AFRICA

Rizine R Mzikamanda*

ABSTRACT

This ar ti cle la ments the ap par ent rise and fall of constitutionalism in South -

ern Af rica and won ders about the pros pects for the fu ture. It ex presses the

view that the ju di ciary is in dis pens able to constitutionalism. Yet the rul ing

elite ap pear to be nar row ing the scope of the role of the ju di ciary. There ap -

pears to be de lib er ate at tempts by the ru l ing elite to weaken and alien ate the

ju di ciary. Re spect for court or ders is not con sis tent and courts re main in ad e -

quately funded. The in de pend ence of the courts in this re gion needs t o be

bol stered in or der for constitutionalism to take root.

IINTRODUCTION

Mem ber states of the South ern Af ri can De vel op ment Com mu nity

(SADC)1 have a lot in com mon. All of them were colo nised by west ern pow ers

be fore they at tained self-rule. In re cent times these coun tries have adopted

dem o cratic con sti tu tions. How ever, for most of them, at tain ing de moc racy

has proved to be the eas ier part. The most dif fi cult part has been con sol i dat ing

de moc racy and en trench ing constitutionalism, giv ing rise to the par a dox of

the so-called ‘con sti tu tions with out constitutionalism’.2

THE ROLE OF THE JUDICIARY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA 131

LLM (Hull), LLB Hons (Ma lawi); Jus tice of Ap peal, Ma lawi Su preme Court of Ap peal. Email:

rizine2006@ya hoo.com. An ear lier ver sion of this ar ti cle was pre sented at the con fer ence on 'The

role of law re form in constitutionalism, rule of law and dem o cratic gov er nance' hosted by the As -

so ci a tion of Law Re form Agen cies of East ern and South ern Af rica in Lilongwe, Ma lawi, on 7-11

No vem ber 2011.

*

1SADC has 15 mem ber states: An gola, Bot swana, the Dem o cratic Re pub lic of Congo, Le sotho,

Ma lawi, Mad a gas car, Mau ri tius, Mo zam bique, Namibia, South Af rica, Sey chelles, Swa zi land,

Tan za nia, Zam bia and Zim ba bwe.

2See HWO Okoth-Ogendo ‘Con sti tu tions with out constitutionalism’ in I Shivji (ed) State and

constitutionalism in Af rica: An Af ri can de bate on de moc racy (Harare: SAPES, 1991) 3–25.