Member of the Johannesburg Bar Jean Meiring has had a keen eye on South Africa's happenings for many years. Most recently, his expertise has brought him to compiling a fascinating read titled, 'South Africa's Constitution at Twenty-One'. The book is a collection of essays which explore what the Constitution means for South Africans and for the world – both through its definition of legal rights and through the seepage into the real world of those rights, and the culture that has arisen around them. The contributors range from former Constitutional Court judges to activists, writers and philosophers, who look soberly at what has been achieved and what still needs to be done. Gareth discusses the evolution of South Africa's democracy and Meiring's book in this in-depth conversation.