CONSTITUTIONAL DESIGN

• The Constitution is the fundamental law that establishes the structure, powers, and limitations of government.
• Apartheid was the official policy of racial separation and ill treatment of blacks followed by the government of South Africa between 1948 and 1989.
• A Constitution is the supreme law of a country, containing fundamental rules governing the politics and society in a country.
• Nelson Mandela stated, "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination, I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities, it is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve."
• South Africa was the country where the apartheid system was prevalent.
• The full form of ANC is African National Congress.
• The White Europeans imposed the apartheid system in South Africa.
• In the seventeenth and eighteenth century, companies from Europe occupied South Africa with arms and force.
• Nelson Mandela was tried for treason, an offence of attempting to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance.
• Nelson Mandela spent 28 years in South Africa’s most dreaded prison, Robben Island.
• In 1964, Nelson Mandela and seven other leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment.
• South Africa got independent at midnight 26 April 1994, when the new national flag of the Republic of South Africa was unfurled.
• The White regime changed its policies during the protests and struggles against Apartheid.
• Discriminatory laws were repealed during the protests and struggles against Apartheid.
• Ban on political parties and restriction on media were lifted during the protests and struggles against Apartheid.
• The Constitution of new South Africa gave to its citizens the most extensive rights available in any country.
• After independence, in the new democratic South Africa, Black leaders appealed to fellow blacks to forgive the whites for atrocities.
• Black leaders urged to build a new south Africa based on equality of all races, men and women, democractic values, social justice and human rights.
• The party that ruled through oppression and brutal killings and the party that led the freedom struggle sat together to make a common Constitution.
• The Constitution generates a degree of trust and coordination that is necessary for different kinds of people to live together.
• The Constitution specifies how the government will be constituted, who will have power to take which decisions.
• The Constitution lays down limits on the powers of the government and tells us what the rights of the citizens are.
• The Constitution expresses the aspirations of the people about creating a good society.
• Apartheid was the name of a system of racial discrimination unique to south Africa.
• The white Europeans imposed the apartheid system in South Africa.
• The apartheid system was particularly oppressive for the Blacks.
• Blacks were forbidden from living in white areas during the apartheid system.
• Blacks could work in white area only if they had a permit during the apartheid system.
• Trains, buses, taxis, were all separate for the whites and Blacks during the apartheid system.
• Blacks had no voting rights during the apartheid system.
• There were 5 Sikh, 5 Indian Christian and 4 Muslim members in the Assembly.
• A Constitution is the Supreme law of a country, containing fundamental rules governing the politics and society in a country.
• In 1931, the Karachi session of the Indian National Congress discussed how independent India's constitution should look like.
• The elections to the Constituent Assembly were held in July 1946.
• The Indian Constitution adopted many institutional details and procedures from colonial laws, including the Government of India Act 1935.
• The Constituent Assembly had 299 members.
• India adopted the practice of Parliamentary democracy from the United Kingdom.
• The idea of Fundamental rights has been taken from the Bill of Rights of the United States of America.
• The ideals of French and American Revolution inspired the idea of social & economic equality in India.
• The Constitution of India was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 26 November 1949 and came into effect on 26 January 1950.