The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act in South Africa seeks to make the constitutional prohibition of discrimination as effective as possible. The achievement of this aim is, however, likely to be frustrated by several factors, including the legacy of apartheid, deficiencies in the formal statutory guarantees and the judicial interpretation of these, and the lack of effective enforcement mechanisms. As a result, the attempt to clamp down on racial discrimination has removed from the constitutional guarantee much of its potential force.