During the early 1990s, a tectonic shift happened in the South African politico- legal landscape when the country transitioned from the old system of apartheid to a new system based on constitutional democracy. Consequently, South Africa became the centre of attention for its potential to drive constitutional developments towards realising transformation and social justice. The transition held a great promise for many South Africans. Many had high hopes and expectations. This was understandable for a society emerging from the malignant apartheid policies that propelled discrimination, injustices and racial inequalities. The transition resulted in the Constitution that is lauded at home and internationally as ‘the best Constitution’. Admittedly, the South African Constitution is innovative, unique and progressive in many ways. It embodies some legal norms that attempt to secure equal protection and benefit of the law and equality before the law for everyone. It also carries ideals that seek to achieve and build a society based on democratic values of social justice and improve the quality of life of all citizens.

Notwithstanding the apparent successful transition from the repugnant apartheid to the post-1994 democratic dispensation, there remain pervasive socioeconomic inequities and cyclic political challenges bedeviling post-apartheid South Africa. Many challenges that continue to engulf the country includes racialised inequalities, the emerging violence trends, corruption and the nonresponsive and misaligned criminal justice system. The country also continue to home to perverse ideological contradictions between the previously advantaged and the majority of the people, often evident through ‘coloured’ political parties. As Pius Langa (2012: 4) poignantly posited that how we respond to the poverty crisis is critical to the survival of our democracy, development and the stability of the constitutional state the country sought to build and sustain. The recurrent challenges have evoked fresh questions about the enduring narrative of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa as ‘the best constitution’.

One of the intractable questions is; does the continued reverberation of ‘the best constitution´ narrative assist in resolving people’s socio-economic miseries? The 2024 TLC conference seeks to respond to this and numerous other questions that help reflect on the development of the South African Constitution thirty years into democracy. We look forward to receiving critical contributions that how South Africa’s Constitution succeeded or failed in facilitating the broader societal ideals, especially given the widely celebrated ‘best constitution’ narrative in the past 30 years of constitutional democracy.

Nonetheless, it is accepted that the Constitution embodies some legal norms that attempts to secure equal protection and benefit of the law, and equality before the law for everyone. It also carries ideals that sought to achieve and build a society based on democratic values of social justice, and also to improve the quality of life of all citizens. But Justice Langa reiterates that unless we redress the gap between the poor and the most affluent in our country, the reconciliation phenomenon needed to facilitate our development as a nation will remain a pipe dream.