ESR Review : Economic and Social Rights in South Africa

Interview

Mauritius celebrated 50 years of independence on 12 March 2018, a date which coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of its Constitution. At the time of this writing, a number of celebratory events were under way to commemorate these milestones, but there has been debate, too, about the status of economic and social rights (hereafter, socio-economic rights) in the country. Their complete absence in the Mauritian Constitution has raised several critical questions from different quarters about the effectiveness of their protection. These questions become all the more pertinent when one considers that Mauritius is one of the strongest welfare states in Africa and provides citizens with a plethora of social and economic benefits without there being constitutional guarantees of socioeconomic rights. Is there hence any real need to enshrine the rights in the Constitution when the country is faring relatively well as it is? Would constitutional protection of socioeconomic rights genuinely improve the social and economic conditions of Mauritians?

Welcome to the first issue of the ESR Review for 2018, which features three articles engaging with economic, social and cultural rights. In the first, Sinethemba Memela and Tatenda Muranda argue that although the South African state has taken steps to provide housing to vulnerable groups, particularly the aged and people with physical disabilities, a range of other persons who require special-needs housing struggle to access state assistance. Among them are those with intellectual and psychiatric disabilities, victims of domestic abuse, orphans, the homeless, persons undergoing substance rehabilitation, and parolees, ex-offenders and juvenile offenders. The challenges these groups face are well illustrated by the Life Esidimeni tragedy, in which 94 mental health-care patients died at 16 non-governmental organisations and three hospitals from non-psychiatric conditions such as dehydration.