Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola defended the Constitution and the rule of law in his speech during the debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address (SoNA) on Tuesday.

Last month, African National Congress (ANC) veteran and long-serving Cabinet member Lindiwe Sisulu caused a furore when she disparaged the rule of law and questioned whether the Constitution had done enough to deal with structural issues brought about by apartheid.

Lamola spoke on the second day of the SoNA debate in the Cape Town City Hall.

"Almost to this day in 1995, President Nelson Mandela stood at the inauguration of the Constitutional Court, where he said something which we must continue to hold very dearly: 'The authority of government comes from the people through the Constitution. Your tasks and responsibilities, as well as your power, come to you from the people through the Constitution. The people speak through the Constitution. The Constitution enables the multiple voices of the people to be heard in an organised, articulate, meaningful and principled manner,'" he said.

"I will dare add, attacks disguised through revolutionary sounding phrases remain counter-revolutionary; they are against the people. It is a language aimed to replace people's institutions with a personality cult where only one person thinks for the whole nation," added Lamola.

He said the Constitution was an "incredible instrument" and the "culmination of battles by legions of South Africans of all races, Africans, and the world at large".

"The ANC is an organisation deeply embedded in constitutionalism. Constitutionalism proclaims the desirability of the rule of law as opposed to rule by arbitrary judgement or mere declaration of public officials," he added.

He said the Constitution was transformative.

"As the late Chief Justice Langa reminds us in a paper titled Transformative Constitutionalism: 'The Constitution is not transformative because of its peculiar historical position or its particular socio-economic goals, but because it envisions a society that will always be open to change and contestation, a society that will always be defined by transformation.'"

Lamola said the rule of law might have been momentarily bruised, but it was not destroyed.

"The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is breaking the shackles which constrained it."

Lamola said despite capacity challenges and budget constraints, law enforcement and criminal justice agencies had achieved noteworthy successes.

He said the NPA's capacity will be strengthened by implementing sections of the Reconstruction and Development Programme Fund Act.

He said the NPA was prioritising senior appointments.

Sisulu wasn't among the ANC speakers in the SoNA debate.

Ramaphosa will respond to the debate on Wednesday at 14:00.