South Africa’s innovati ve inclusion of fully justiciable socio-economic rights in its Constitutio n was inspired by the injustices of colonialism and Apartheid. Moving from a notoriously insular legal culture to a culture of liberal social justic e\, a nation in desperate need for change embraced the notion of transform ative constitutionalism—that is the use of a constitution’s core values to promote equality\, human welfare and affirmative action.
Touting t ransformative constitutionalism\, the Constitutional Court ruled in the Gr ootboom case that socioeconomic rights are justiciable\, even when their e nforcement has budgetary implications for the state. Although the Grootboo m judgment was considered a seminal decision\, its piecemeal implementatio n attracted criticism for not addressing homelessness and poor housing in South Africa. I use Grootboom to assess how the enforcement of socioeconom ic rights has fared in a nation whose constitutionalism promotes reverence for the Bill of Rights.
Anthony Diala is pioneer director of the Ce ntre for Legal Integration in Africa at the University of the Western Cape . He has worked in the International Criminal Court\, the International Cr iminal Tribunal for Rwanda\, the Justice and Peace Commission\, Nigeria\, and universities in Germany\, Italy\, Nigeria\, Sweden and South Africa. H e is a fellow of the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies and co-e ditor of the African Journal of Legal Studies.
Diala has researched customary law and human rights in several countries with grants from the American Council of Learned Societies\, the Social Science Research Counci l of New York\, the Nordic Africa Institute\, and the South African Nation al Research Foundation. Among others\, he serves on the advisory boards of Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis and the Journal of African L aw. He holds a doctorate in socio-legal studies from the University of Cap e Town.