Constitutional enforcement of Socio-economic rights: South African case study

Abstract

The entrenchment of socio-economic rights in the South African Constitution is a critique. It is submitted that a constitution that pretends to guarantee rights which cannot be judicially enforced should not be considered a serious legal document. In this paper, particular attention is paid to the far reaching judgment by the Constitutional Court in Mazibuko and others v The City of Johannesburg.1 The questions posed and answered relate to issues such as the enforceability of socio-economic rights entrenched in the constitutions