The Land Is Ours: South Africa’s First Black Lawyers and the Birth of Constitutionalism - Softcover

Ngcukaitobi, Tembeka

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1776092856 ISBN 13: 9781776092857

Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa, 2018

Synopsis

The Land Is Ours tells the story of South Africa’s first black lawyers, who operated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In an age of aggressive colonial expansion, land dispossession and forced labour, these men believed in a constitutional system that respected individual rights and freedoms, and they used the law as an instrument against injustice. The book follows the lives, ideas and careers of Henry Sylvester Williams, Alfred Mangena, Richard Msimang, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Ngcubu Poswayo and George Montsioa, who were all members of the ANC. It analyses the legal cases they took on, explores how they reconciled the law with the political upheavals of the day, and considers how they sustained their fidelity to the law when legal victories were undermined by politics. The Land Is Ours shows that these lawyers developed the concept of a Bill of Rights, which is now an international norm. The book is particularly relevant in light of current calls to scrap the Constitution and its protections of individual rights: it clearly demonstrates that, from the beginning, the struggle for freedom was based on the idea of the rule of law.

About this title

About the Author

Tembeka Ngcukaitobi is an advocate of the High Court. He holds the degrees of BProc, LLB (Unitra), LLM (Rhodes) and LLM (London School of Economics). He formed part of the EFF legal team arguing for the state capture report to be released in the North Gauteng High Court.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1776092856
• ISBN 13: 9781776092857
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 328