Today I rise not as an accused but, on behalf of behalf of the people of South Africa, to inaugurate a court South Africa has never had, a court on which hinges the future of our democracy. It is not just a building that we inaugurate, handsome though it is. It is not a body of wise men and women that we launch on their path, important though we regard their work. It is not just our blessings that we give to their work, confident as we are in their integrity and commitment to justice. It is an institution that we establish - South Africa's first Constitutional Court.
People come and people go.
Customs, fashions, and preferences change. Yet the web of fundamental rights and justice which a nation proclaims, must not be broken. We expect you to stand on guard not only against direct assault on the principles of the constitution, but against insidious corrosion. Attacks on the basic rights of the people are invariably couched in innocent language. We do pledge that the new Government of National Unity will never be party to the subterfuges of the past which put a humane gloss over the most iniquitous denials of our rights.