Overview

If a paternity test were done on widely admired South Africa's constitution, whose DNA would come up? Is the Constitution just a beautiful piece of paper? If Oliver Tambo were alive today, walking around South Africa, would he be pleased with what he saw? In this riveting, direct account of the genesis of South Africa's constitution, former Justice Albie Sachs answers these crucial questions. The chapters of this book are based on a four-part lecture series delivered by Albie Sachs at universities around the country during the centenary year of Oliver Tambo's birth. The lectures were delivered as part of the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation's centenary celebrations which sought to honour and remember Tambo's life, the values he espoused and his commitment to the struggle for national liberation. Described by former President Nelson Mandela as `a great giant who strode the globe like a colossus', Tambo was one of the key drivers of South Africa's liberation and the founding father of our constitutional democracy. Sachs writes about the years he spent working under Tambo's leadership in exile preparing for a new post-apartheid constitutional order in South Africa and about the extreme crises that were overcome during the constitution-making process to arrive at the document we have today. Tackling the burning issues that face our country today, he argues that the Constitution is a framework for struggle and decolonisation that can be used to bring about land reform and true equality.

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9780620779593

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Albie Sachs is an activist and a former judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa (1994-2009). He began practising as an advocate at the Cape Bar at the age of 21, defending people charged under the racial statutes and security laws of apartheid. After being arrested and placed in solitary confinement for over five months, Sachs went into exile in England, where he completed a PhD at Sussex University. In 1988, he lost his right arm and his sight in one eye when a bomb was placed in his car in Maputo, Mozambique. After the bombing, he devoted himself to the preparations for a new democratic constitution for South Africa. When he returned home from exile, he served as a member of the Constitutional Committee and the National Executive of the African National Congress. He is the author of several books, including The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter, The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law and We, the People: Insights of an Activist Judge. Sachs has travelled to many countries sharing his experiences in order to help heal divided societies.

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