A R10,000 budget and a gallery of gifts: the ConCourt at 30
South Africa's Constitutional Court built one of the country's great art collections almost entirely from donations.
Johannesburg — As South Africa marks 30 years of its democratic Constitution, Daily Maverick has looked back at how the Constitutional Court became a home for art as well as law.
Built on donations
Justices Albie Sachs and Yvonne Mokgoro began collecting for the court's permanent home with a budget of just R10,000, all of it spent on one work, Joseph Ndlovu's tapestry Humanity. Almost everything else was given by artists and supporters. Highlights include:
- Judith Mason's The Blue Dress, inspired by testimony about activist Phila Ndwandwe, who made clothing from plastic bags to keep her dignity in detention.
- The hand-carved main doors showing the 27 rights of the Bill of Rights in the 11 official languages and sign language, by Andrew Verster, Andries Botha and KwaZulu-Natal carvers.
- Dumile Feni's bronze History, cast in New York and brought home in 2003.
- Works by William Kentridge, Marlene Dumas and Willie Bester.
A visit from Ruth Bader Ginsburg
On 7 February 2006, US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spoke at the court, the first American Supreme Court justice to visit South Africa. She praised Section 39 of the 1996 Constitution, which allows courts to consider international law, and argued that American judges could learn from other democracies.
Source: Daily Maverick, 23 October 2026.
