Interviews with Albie Sachs

Oliver Tambo had set up a constitutional committee of the ANC and I had the delight and privilege of being amongst its founding members.

[Oliver Tambo (1917 – 1993) was an anti-apartheid activist and a senior leader of the African National Congress (ANC). He served as the organization’s president from 1967 – 1991 and kept the ANC together in exile after it was banned by the South African government in 1960. The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party that served as the most prominent resistance movement against South Africa’s apartheid system, at times resorting to violence through its military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. It was officially banned by the South African government from 1960 to 1990. As apartheid collapsed, the ANC’s leader, Nelson Mandela, was elected President of South Africa in 1994 and established a democratic government.]

This was around about ´87-´88 – 1988 – we´re still in exile. And we could see that leadership coming from him with the support of his national executive committee for the creation of a constitutional democracy in South Africa. And all over the world, programs were coming in for the most contorted, convoluted, strange constitutional arrangements that would somehow attempt to reconcile protection of the white minority as it was seen with majority rule, that would have been disastrous.

Oliver Tambo´s idea was we protect everybody in our country, majorities, minorities, black, white, and brown, through a Bill of Rights that will be entrenched with an independent judiciary. And that will prevent anybody from being dispossessed of their homes arbitrarily, being forced off land purely because of their race, being humiliated, being denied the right to use their language to worship in the way that they want. And that´s what people as people for human beings as human beings, not because they´re white, not because they´re black, not because they´re brown.

I was given the task of explaining the Bill of Rights to the ANC membership in exile, and we had a special workshop, a conference on constitutional principles for a new South Africa. And I remember my heart was going boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. The easy part was to say we need a Bill of Rights to show the world that we´re good people, that we understand the rule of law, that we´re not looking for domination.

For purely diplomatic reasons, we need it. But we´ve often done things that people outside haven´t liked, so it´s gotta be on a principled basis, not simply to win favor. Then I said there´s a second reason. This was really the Oliver Tambo reason. The Bill of Rights is the answer to the claim by the white minority that if we get democracy in South Africa, they can´t be driven into the sea. And the protection is not to have a group of seats for whites only in parliament, or a white veto on any transformation. That would be a disaster. Then the constitution will be seen as protecting privilege rather than guaranteeing rights for everybody. And so that became central to our vision of the new South Africa.

And that wasn´t difficult to explain to people. But the third reason, and this was why my heart was going boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, was I said, “We need a Bill of Rights against ourselves. That we´ve lived in countries where people have fought bravely for freedom, but afterwards they´ve gone on to become very authoritarian in the way that they rule,” and I was nervous when I said this. I´m white, comfortable middle-class background with theories and ideas and inverted commas, what will the membership feel. They´re involved in a revolutionary struggle to transform South Africa. And I saw in the eyes of everybody in the room just a sense of delight because they were anxious. They were worried, how would we be when we were in power.

Albie Sachs was born on January 30, 1935 in South Africa and grew up under the apartheid government.

His career as a freedom and human rights activist started at seventeen, when as a second-year law student at the University of Cape Town, he became active in nonviolent, anti-apartheid protests. At 21, he began practicing law and was known for defending individuals charged under racial statutes and repressive security laws. Sachs himself was arrested by the security police, subjected to banning orders restricting his movement, and eventually placed in solitary confinement without trial for extended periods of time.

In 1966, he went into exile. After spending eleven years studying and teaching law in England, Sachs worked in Mozambique as law professor and legal researcher. In 1988, he survived a car bomb, but lost an arm and sight in one eye.

During the 1980s, working closely with Oliver Tambo, leader of the African National Congress (ANC) in exile, Sachs helped draft the organization’s Code of Conduct, as well as its statutes. After recovering from the bombing, he devoted himself full-time to preparations for a new democratic, South African constitution. In 1990, he returned home to South Africa and as a member of the Constitutional Committee and the National Executive of the ANC, took an active part in the negotiations leading to South Africa’s democratic transition. After the first democratic election in 1994, Sachs was appointed by President Nelson Mandela to serve on the newly established Constitutional Court, where he served until 2009.

Sachs has travelled to many countries sharing South Africa’s experience and discussing human rights.

South Africa is a nation of almost 53 million on the southern tip of Africa. The nation has a unique multicultural character and is approximately 80 percent African and 10 percent European, with the remaining 10 percent being of mixed race or Asian heritage. These broad racial categories include a multitude of ethnic and linguistic groups.

Although it has the largest economy on the continent, much of the nation remains in poverty and there is great economic disparity. Historically, the mining industry has played a key role in South Africa’s economy and it continues to remain an important industry today, alongside manufacturing, tourism, and financial services.

South Africa was first settled by non-natives in 1652, when the Dutch established an outpost in what would later become Cape Town. Soon after, British, French, and German settlers came to the area. The descendants of the original Dutch settlers became known as Afrikaners. Conflicts over land and power arose between the settling groups as well as between the settlers and the native people of the region. In 1910, Britain formally created the Union of South Africa as a self-governing dominion within the British Empire.

Throughout South Africa’s history, non-whites were subjected to widespread discrimination. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the government passed a series of laws institutionalizing discrimination and segregation. In the 1948 elections, the National Party, which served as a platform for Afrikaner nationalism, gained power. The National Party program was centered on the system of racial segregation known as apartheid. Supporters of apartheid argued that South Africa was made up of four distinct racial groups: white, black, “Coloured” or mixed-race, and Indian.

The white minority oppressed the African majority and other non-white groups. Black Africans were particularly disadvantaged in terms of education, housing, income, and health. Blacks were denied citizenship and not permitted to use the services and facilities accessible by the white minority. Many blacks were forced to relocate when their neighborhoods were declared “white.” A series of laws enacted in the 1950s further codified and expanded racial segregation. In part, the National Party justified its policies by branding its opponents as communists.

The African National Congress (ANC) was founded in 1912 to advocate for the rights of black South Africans. As apartheid expanded, the ANC and other groups used both nonviolent and violent actions to combat the government. The ANC and other groups were oppressed by the government, and many of their senior leaders were banned or imprisoned. Nelson Mandela, a prominent ANC leader, was imprisoned from 1962 to 1990.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the anti-apartheid movement gained strength. Foreign governments and the international community isolated South Africa. International sanctions damaged the economy and helped erode domestic support for apartheid. Meanwhile, the end of the Cold War weakened the government’s claim that yielding power would lead to a communist takeover.

In 1990, the government of South Africa took its first steps toward ending apartheid when it ended a ban on certain political organizations including the ANC. Nelson Mandela and other opposition leaders were released from prison and apartheid legislation was repealed. F.W. de Klerk, President from 1989-1994, helped to broker this transition of South Africa from the apartheid-era to a multi-racial democracy. In 1993, de Klerk and Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize for their work.

In 1994, South Africa held its first election that allowed all adults to vote, regardless of race. The ANC gained power and Nelson Mandela was elected president. South Africa enacted a liberal, democratic constitution, backed by a strong and independent judiciary. While the ANC has remained the strongest party, elections are vigorously contested and democratic safeguards are respected. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigated abuses and crimes committed during the apartheid era.

Freedom House’s 2013 Freedom in the World report categorized South Africa as “free” with an overall freedom rating of two, with one being the most free and seven being the least. The country also received ratings of two in political rights and civil liberties. However, in the 2013 Freedom of the Press report, the nation was categorized as “party free” due to government restrictions on the press and the prevalence of civil cases brought against journalists for libel.