Kate Savage

Kate Savage (also known as Katharine Mary Savage) is a South African lawyer and judge. She worked on the drafting of South Africa’s democratic Constitution as a researcher in the African National Congress Constitutional Commission and later served as a judge of the Western Cape High Court and the Labour Appeal Court. She was appointed to the Constitutional Court of South Africa with effect from 1 May 2026. Quotes “We started with the verb ‘recognise’ so as to emphasise right from the outset the terrible injustices which had gone before. Our first draft included the ‘resolve to redress the divisive legacy of apartheid’ but we took this out because it was not only apartheid but also the terrible legacy of injustice and inequality in this country even before it.” Our Constitution “Initially, we had tried to record the notion that we believed that people of diverse backgrounds can live together as equals and compatriots, united in common loyalty to build a new nation. We had also included a clause celebrating the diversity of our nation which had come from the ANC preamble proposal and a reference to our aspiring to achieve our full economic, social and cultural development.” Our Constitution “During April 1996 I prepared a document which set out the key words and phrases contained in the preamble proposals of the three largest parties, the ANC, NP and DP. I then checked for any wording in the proposals of other political parties which may be useful. After I had done this, I met with Joel Netshitenzhe at President Mandela’s office in Tuynhuys. The two of us came up with the ANC’s proposal of 15 April 1996 for the Preamble which then formed the basis for the negotiations.” Our Constitution “After hours of further negotiations and consultations, we agreed on ‘May God protect our people’. So by 3 a.m., Friday the 19th April 1996, we had a document which said, ‘We the people, recognise, honour, believe and we therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the Supreme Law of the Republic, so as to heal, lay, improve, build….’ and then we had the words, ‘May God protect our people, Nkosi Sikelel’ Afrika’. It was probably an error, because I had talked everybody into it and discussed taking the English out of the bottom, but we left in ‘God bless South Africa’ as well, and then that was that.” Our Constitution “The big outstanding issue was the inclusion of a reference to God in the preamble. Boy Geldenhuys said, ‘Kate, there is no preamble without God. It has to be a preamble which starts with ‘In submission to Almighty God, or ‘We, the people, recognising Almighty God’ or there must be some credit to God right at the front of the preamble. Anything less than that is not going to be acceptable. We are a country in which more than 90 percent of the people are Christians’. I went to both Blade Nzimande and Cyril Ramaphosa with this proposal. Both said absolutely not, we are a secular state and we are not going to have a reference to God in the preamble.” Our Constitution External links Category:South African women Category:South African judges Category:Women judges Category:Living people