The potential effectiveness of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000

Abstract

I consider the potential effectiveness of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 in achieving its stated goal of effecting far-reaching societal transformation. I do this by identifying 18 criteria of effective legislation, inter alia that such a law must be able to be implemented and enforced, that it should be highly visible and popularised, that it must provide for effective remedies, that it should not require substantial adjustments of current mores, and that a law set up to protect the economically weak will have limited impact. I then compare these criteria to the Act and conclude that the Act may well be able to assist individual claimants, but that farreaching societal changes will not follow from the Act’s implementation.