Albie Sachs delivered the OR Tambo Centenary Lecture on the Constitution as South Africa's first great act of decolonisation

Former Constitutional Court Judge Albie Sachs was introduced by Archbishop Dr Thabo Makgoba and delivered a Lecture entitled:

The Constitution: the negotiation processes that led to South Africa’s first great act of decolonisation

It was the third Lecture given by Albie Sachs, former Professor at UWC and Constitutional Court Judge, in a four-part series sponsored by the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation to mark the centenary of the birth of Oliver Tambo. The first, given at the University of Pretoria, dealt with Tambo’s Dream, telling the story of the manner in which Tambo laid the foundations in Lusaka for our Constitution. The second, delivered at UCT, concerned the manner in which the Property clause and land redistribution was dealt with during negotiations.

His Lecture at UWC dealt with the specific role that workshops put on by the Community Law Centre (now: Dullah Omar Institute) at UWC played in pointing the way to key elements in the Constitution. It then dealt with the six crises over a period of six years that threatened to derail the Constitution-making process and how they were resolved.

Click here for a video registration of the event.

Click here for more about Albie Sachs' life as an activist, scholar and Judge.

On the occasion of the Community Law Centre's 25th Anniversary and its renaming into the Dullah Omar Institute in 2015, we interviewed Albie Sachs about the history of the Institute.