It provides the legal foundation for the existence of the republic, it sets out the human rights and duties of its citizens, and defines the structure of the Government.

It was promulgated by President Nelson Mandela on 18 December 1996 and came into effect on 4 February 1997, replacing the Interim Constitution of 1993.

In a referendum, the first national election with a solely white electorate, the Act was narrowly approved, with a substantial minority in the Cape province and a strong majority in Natal opposing it.

The Republic of South Africa Constitution Act, 1983, again approved by a whites-only referendum, created the Tricameral Parliament, with separate houses representing Whites, Coloureds and Indians but without representation for Blacks.

It introduced, for the first time, the framework of a liberal democracy, universal adult suffrage and a bill of rights.

The African National Congress (ANC) insisted that it should be drawn up by a democratically elected constituent assembly, while the governing National Party (NP) feared that the rights of minorities would not be protected in such a process, and proposed instead that the constitution be negotiated by consensus between the parties and then put to a referendum.

[4] The parties to the MPNP adopted this idea and proceeded to draft the Interim Constitution of 1993, which was formally enacted by Parliament and came into force on 27 April 1994.

These included multi-party democracy with regular elections and universal adult suffrage, supremacy of the constitution over all other law, a quasi-federal system in place of centralised government, non-racism and non-sexism, the protection of "all universally accepted fundamental rights, freedoms and civil liberties," equality before the law, the separation of powers with an impartial judiciary, provincial and local levels of government with democratic representation, and protection of the diversity of languages and cultures.

The Bill of Rights, now in Chapter Two of the Constitution of South Africa, was largely written by Kader Asmal and Albie Sachs.

As the deadline for the adoption of a constitutional text approached, however, many issues were hashed out in private meetings between the parties' representatives.

Areas of non-compliance included failures to protect the right of employees to engage in collective bargaining; to provide for the constitutional review of ordinary statutes; to entrench fundamental rights, freedoms and civil liberties and to sufficiently safeguard the independence of the Public Protector and Auditor-General as well as other areas of non-compliance in relation to local government responsibilities and powers.

It did not come into force immediately; it was brought into operation on 4 February 1997, by a presidential proclamation, except for some financial provisions which were delayed until 1 January 1998.

It defines South Africa as "one, sovereign, democratic state" based on principles of human rights, constitutional supremacy, the rule of law and universal adult suffrage.

It lays down a set of principles requiring them to co-operate in good faith and to act in the best interests of the people.

In some respects, the chapter is a template which a province may modify to a limited extent by adopting its own provincial constitution.

It makes the President the Commander-in-Chief of the defence force but places conditions on when and how it may be employed and requires regular reports to Parliament.

Chapter 12 recognizes the status and authority of traditional leaders and customary law, subject to the Constitution.

It provides for an equitable distribution of national revenue to the provinces and municipalities, and grants provincial and local governments the powers to raise certain rates and taxes.

It requires effective and transparent budgeting at all levels of government and gives the National Treasury the power to oversee budgetary processes.

To amend section 1 of the Constitution, which establishes the existence of South Africa as a sovereign, democratic state, and lays out the country's founding values, would require the support of three-quarters of the members of the National Assembly.

It had three provisions: This last change allowed the TRC to deal with various violent events, particularly the Bophuthatswana coup d'état and its aftermath, that had occurred in the run-up to the 1994 general elections.

They were passed as two separate amendments because the Fourth contained provisions affecting provincial government, which required the approval of the National Council of Provinces, while the Fifth did not.

This was not originally allowed because South African elections are based on party-list proportional representation in which voters choose a political party rather than an individual candidate.

The Loss or Retention of Membership Act was intended to allow members of the National Assembly and provincial legislatures to cross the floor.

The Ninth Amendment made provision for the reallocation of seats in the National Council of Provinces when the party composition of a provincial legislature changed as a result of floor crossing.

However, on 4 October 2002, in the case of United Democratic Movement v President of the Republic of South Africa and Others, the Constitutional Court found the Loss or Retention of Membership Act to be unconstitutional, so floor crossing remained prohibited in the National Assembly and provincial legislatures.

The Tenth Amendment was introduced to constitutionally allow floor crossing in the National Assembly and provincial legislatures; it came into force on 20 March 2003.

The court's order was suspended for eighteen months, and during that time Parliament re-enacted the Matatiele boundary change as the Thirteenth Amendment, which came into force on 14 December 2007.

The people of Khutsong, which had been transferred from Gauteng to the North West, resorted to marches, protests (in some cases violent) and boycotts and stayaways.

The Fourteenth Amendment contained the provisions which affected the provincial legislatures and the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), and therefore had to be approved by supermajority in the NCOP as well as the National Assembly, while the Fifteenth Amendment contained the remaining provisions which only had to be approved by the Assembly.