Moving from the letter of the law to the spirit of the law : the challenges of realising the intent of employment equity and affirmative action

摘要

The letter of the law versus the spirit of the law is an idiomatic antithesis whichsuggests that in interpreting a law there are two choices. One can approach a lawliterally or one can instead focus on its intent. The relevance of this idiomaticopposition to the Employment Equity Act and its provision for affirmative actionis interrogated through the presentation of two case studies demonstrating theobstacles to fully embracing equity and valuing the diversity of South Africansociety.