Questions About Interpreting and Applying the Constitution | The Coetzee 1995 Case - Part 1

Did the new Constitution permit imprisonment for contempt of Court of debtors who had not paid up after judgments had been made by the magistrate’s court against them? Counsel for the Legal Resources Centre had argued that it was unconstitutional to lock up thousands of people every year who couldn’t afford to pay, to frighten those who could afford to pay. The Court unanimously agreed that the procedure was invalid because it permitted the debtors to be imprisoned without them having a hearing. In a separate judgment, Justice Sachs went further, stating that even if the law was amended to provide such a hearing, it was a constitutionally unjustifiable invasion of personal freedom to use imprisonment as a form of debt collection.