A new collection of legal and autobiographical writings by former Constitutional Court judge, Albie Sachs, offers an intimate insider’s view of South Africa’s Constitution. Sachs, who lost his arm and his sight in one eye in a bomb attack by the apartheid regime in Maputo, was appointed by Nelson Mandela to the Constitutional Court in 1994. This is an edited extract from the book. I will answer the question of whether the sacrifices made in the struggle to liberate South Africa from apartheid are being honoured or disregarded by the country we have created. But before doing so I believe it is necessary to dispel three myths about the constitution-making process. By distorting our history, these myths make it difficult to make a correct appreciation of where we stand now. The first myth is that the wonderful Nelson Mandela, leading the ANC, and the wise FW de Klerk, at the helm of the National Party, put their heads together and plucked the miracle of a new nonracial democratic const...
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