Supremacy of the Constitution | The Western Cape Case

Parliament requested President Nelson Mandela to issue proclamations providing for the holding of South Africa’s first non-racial democratic Local Government elections. The majority of the Court held that Parliament could not transfer their responsibility for passing primary laws to the President and declared the proclamations to be unconstitutional. Justice Sachs contended that Parliament could in certain circumstances and with sufficient controls, confer law-making authority on the president, but these circumstances and controls didn't exist in this case, so he agreed with the outcome. He comments that the manner in which President Mandela communicated his full acceptance of the decision of the Court made it the day when South Africa became a constitutional democracy.