Can the Constitution Respond to the Challenge of Addressing South Africa’s Inequality?
Channel: SACSIS
Date: 2014-08-29

SACSIS caught up with constitutional law expert Prof. Pierre de Vos, author of the blog, Constitutionally Speaking, to talk about how the South African constitution could be applied to deal with South Africa’s most pressing challenge, our country’s inequality.

Responding to a question on whether our constitution could be applied to encourage more redistributive measures, de Vos argues that the constitution doesn’t have the power to change South Africa’s economic policies. Voters are the ones who can change policies and they must demand change. The problem unfortunately, according to de Vos, is that it is citizens themselves who allow political parties to present rather limited options for addressing inequality to them.

Prof. Pierre de Vos is the Claude Leon Foundation Chair in Constitutional Governance and he teaches in the area of constitutional law at the University of Cape Town. He is interviewed by the executive director of SACSIS, Fazila Farouk.