Towards republican citizenship : a reflection on the jurisprudence of former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo

• Author: Jonathan Klaaren
• DOI: 10.25159/2522-6800/3571
• Published date: 01 August 2017
• Date: 01 August 2017
• Pages: 1-13

1

ARTICLE

Towards Republican Citizenship: A Reection on the

Jurisprudence of Former Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo

Jonathan Klaaren

University of the Witwatersrand,

Faculty of Commerce,

Law and Management, School of Law

Email: jonathan.klaaren@wits.ac.za

ABSTRACT

In modern scholarship, the analysis and use of the term ‘citizenship’ takes many forms and

engages many disciplines and intellectual traditions. Ngcobo CJ has been at the centre

of a fundamental debate over the meaning of citizenship that has developed in South

Africa’s post-apartheid constitutional democracy. Drawing on previous research, the article

briey sketches what might be termed the republican tradition of democratic thought. It

then provides an analysis of several signicant cases in which Ngcobo CJ participated and

the resolution of which he inuenced. The article argues that consistent with and indeed

constructive of an emerging republican tradition of democratic constitutionalism in South

Africa, Ngcobo’s jurisprudential contributions recognise and articulate the public-spiritedness

that the Republic of South Africa demands of each of its citizens.

Keywords: citizenship; republican tradition; economic and political participation; permanent

residents; socio-economic rights

Introduction

It is an honour to be invited to oer some reections on the jurisprudence of former Chief

Justice Sandile Ngcobo. Justice Ngcobo has a well-deserved reputation for scholarship,

judgment, and insight—qualities which were often simultaneously on display in the

numerous judgments he penned during his years at the Constitutional Court. Moreover,

Justice Ngcobo’s achievements prior to his elevation to the Braamfontein Bench are as

impressive as his achievement after his Court service. Among other accomplishments

before his judicial service, during an intensive stint in the United States in the late

1980s, he worked as a law clerk in the chambers of the late former Chief Judge, the

https://doi.org/10.25159/2522-6800/3571

ISSN 2522-6800 (Online) ISSN 2219-6412 (Print)

© Unisa Press 2017

Southern African Public Law

https://upjournals.co.za/index.php/SAPL/index

Volume 32 | Number 1 and 2 | 2017 | pp.1–13