In SA, 40% living below poverty line - Langa

from the Independent On Line

Latoya Newman

South Africa has one of the most unequal distributions of income and wealth in the world.

This is according to Chief Justice Pius Langa, speaking at a lecture at the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Howard College campus on Tuesday.

He said: "We have only recently emerged from the oppressive and immoral apartheid regime. Nevertheless, even today in our new dispensation, the ugly scars of systematic racial domination remain evident in unequal distribution of wealth; in the differing degrees of literacy and education; in the difference of infant mortality rates; in different standards of living."

Citing many examples of how the Constitutional Court protected equality and rights, including the famous KwaZulu-Natal nose-stud case, Langa said it was not just up to the Constitutional Court to ensure equality for the people of South Africa.

"The constitution can only be what we make of it. It describes the dream but it does not create it," he said.

The fact that only "a handful" of socio-economic cases had reached the Constitutional Court was a concern.

"In a country in which more than 40 percent of the people live below the poverty line, one would expect an incredible flow of applications made to the courts of people asserting their rights," he said.

Langa complimented the work of civil society movements for bringing cases to the the court's attention.

A student asked what Langa's thoughts were on comments that the suspension of Vusi Pikoli and the arrest warrant for Selebi had thrown South Africa into a constitutional crisis. He replied: "It is for my court to say if there is a constitutional crisis. We haven't said it yet."