EU South African Trade, Development and Cooperation Agreement: Bane or Boon for Socio-Economic Rights under the South African Constitution?

This article forms part of a Special Issue: EU Free Trade Agreements and Fundamental Rights Protecting Commercial Interests or Exerting Normative Power?Abstract
How does the EU–South African Trade Development and Cooperation Agreement serve as a tool to ensure that basic services recognised under the South African Constitution are secured and reinforced so that the most vulnerable are protected? Benefits under the agreement will be hardly maximised by South Africans if political institutions and those who serve in them fail to duly channel the benefits of the agreement to the people while at the same time minimising potential deleterious effects of the liberalisation fallout engendered by the agreement.