Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law ...
equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms.
The right to equality is one of our most important rights - it promises each citizen that they are equal before the law and that they cannot be discriminated against. We, as equal human beings in the eyes of the law, cannot be discriminated against on any basis, including on grounds of our race, our gender and sex, our ethnic and social origin, disability, and our culture.
This does not mean we must all be treated exactly the same, though, because the law recognises that some people need to be treated differently in order to be treated fairly. This is linked to the idea of restorative justice, which governed the way in which the Government of National Unity determined the tenets of South African democracy. A good example of this is Affirmative Action.
