Certification of the Amended Text of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996

Under the Interim Constitution of 1993, the Constitutional Assembly was required to adopt a final Constitution compliant with prescribed Constitutional Principles (CPs) and submit it to the Constitutional Court for certification. In the First Certification Judgment, the Court refused to certify the 1996 New Text due to specific instances of non-compliance with the CPs. The Constitutional Assembly reconvened, amended the text to address the Court’s objections, and adopted the Amended Text in October 1996 with the requisite majority. The Amended Text was then referred back to the Constitutional Court for certification. Objections to certification were lodged by certain political parties, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government, and members of the public, while the Constitutional Assembly supported certification.

The Constitutional Court certified that all the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, as amended, complied with the Constitutional Principles contained in Schedule 4 to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act 200 of 1993.

This judgment completed South Africa’s constitution-making process by enabling the 1996 Constitution to come into force. It confirmed the binding authority of the Constitutional Principles, clarified the Court’s limited but crucial certification role, and entrenched the supremacy of the Constitution. The case stands as a foundational moment in South African constitutional jurisprudence and democratic transition.