An overview of the constitutional framework of the right to social security with special reference to South Africa

Abstract

Serious efforts to legally recognise and protect human rights in Africa came only with the constitutional reforms that started in the 1990s.Many of the resulting new or revised constitutions now contain provisions aimed at promoting democratic governance, constitutionalism, and respect for the rule of law and human rights. Although many recent studies and surveys show that there have been significant improvements in the quantum of human rights protection in Africa in the last two decades, not much of this research has looked at the specific issue of the right to social security. The aim of this paper is therefore to provide an overview of the position of the right to social security in African constitutions with special reference to the South African constitution and to see what impact this may have in promoting human rights protection. Although this is not generally acknowledged, the right to social security is a human right that is of as much social, economic and political importance as any of the other types of human rights.The paper will start by briefly looking at the conceptual and contextual framework of the right to social security in Africa. This section will examine the basic concept and definition of social security and consider why it is such an important issue in Africa today. The next section will provide an overview of the constitutional framework for recognising and protecting the right to social security in selected African constitutions. From this overview, it will be seen that South Africa has one of the most constitutionally entrenched frameworks for protecting the right of access to social security on the continent. The main lessons from the South African experience will therefore be considered. This will be followed by a consideration of what the prospects for advancing the right of access to social security rights in Africa are. By way of conclusion, it will be contended that constitutionalism, democracy, good governance and a strong ethos for human rights recognition and protection will not easily take root until some of the problems of poverty, deprivation and marginalisation are tackled, ideally through a strong, legally enforceable commitment to social security rights expressly recognised and protected in the constitution.