CAPE TOWN (Reuters) — As South Africans celebrate a decade under a constitution hailed the world over as an example for all, experts warn persistent inequality and imbalance of power threaten its lofty ideals at home.The country’s post-apartheid constitution, and its accompanying Bill of Rights, are widely seen as among the most progressive in the world, enshrining equality and protecting the rights of all groups, individuals and cultures.

Formally adopted by parliament on May 8, 1996, the document’s 10th anniversary will be marked on Monday as President Thabo Mbeki addresses a special session of the legislature expected to draw such honoured guests as former President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

“For an entire decade, whatever our challenges, our people have demonstrated their loyalty to the fundamental law of our country, and the national social contract into which they entered in 1996,” Mbeki said in his weekly letter on Friday.

South Africa’s constitution guarantees democratic rights and racial equality and outpaces many developed countries by outlawing the death penalty, entrenching the right to abortion and banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The constitution invokes the rights of citizens to dignity, to housing, clean water and sanitation, adequate healthcare and to own land.

But analysts say the real test is in its implementation <\m> something South Africa’s leaders are sometimes finding troublesome as the country develops.

“All the values, standards, processes and procedures defined in the constitution are sound,” Ebrahim Fakir, political analyst with the independent Centre for Policy Studies, told Reuters.

“The key is now to have these values transmitted into the state institutions, structures and functions ... and in reducing inequality,” he said.

Analysts say continued massive inequality between South Africa’s poor population and the rich, and the government’s slow pace in dealing with the AIDS epidemic ravaging the country, blight the scorecard.

South Africa’s economy is gathering steam — expanding by 4.9 percent in 2005 for its fastest pace since 1984 — swelling the middle class and further enriching the wealthy.

But millions of people remain on the sidelines, living in shantytown shacks without sanitation and running water, unable to find work.

While the government is accelerating efforts to hand back land to black farmers and communities, it and the business community are struggling to tackle stubbornly high unemployment estimated at around 26.7 percent.

“Inequality is escalating ... people are being left out, they are not being included in the values of the constitution,” Fakir said.

Others complain of the fragile balance between the much-praised constitution and the skewed political landscape in which the ruling party’s massive 70 percent support allows it to change the document at will.

Mbeki’s African National Congress (ANC) has dismissed concerns it aims to re-write the law, but critics point to the government’s aversion to criticism and plans for amendments that give government more power over the management of the judiciary.

Some judges warn this may encroach on the constitutionally protected independence of the bench, seen as a cornerstone of the democratic order.

“I do have concerns that the constitution is not being given its due respect as a founding document for running of the country,” said Rob Midgley, head of the Law Department at Rhodes University.

“It should be allowed to settle in ... we might just create a culture of treating the constitution like any ordinary legislation,” he added.

Despite these concerns, many in South Africa believe the document has weathered a decade of enormous transformation as the country shakes off the legacy of apartheid, supported by a widely respected Constitutional Court.

“We can certainly say by now that the constitution has stood the test of time. It has lived up to expectations,” said Roelf Meyer, a white former politician and one of the document’s chief negotiators.

The measure of its success should be seen in how people’s lives have changed in the decade since it was adopted.

“For the vast majority of South Africans they are experiencing a better life than 10 years ago, and that is the true test,” he said.