Articles Archives - Page 34 of 65 - FW de Klerk Foundation

ARTICLE: Heritage Day – 24 September 2020: Uniting from a Distance

2020-09-23

This Heritage Day we are slowly emerging from the most immediate aftermath of Covid-19 and its devastating effect on our country, economy and people.

On this day -and in a country belonging to all its’ people – South Africans are encouraged to celebrate their culture, the diversity of their beliefs and traditions.

One of the most important aspects recognised in the Constitution of South Africa, is the importance of our collective heritage and the rich cultural, linguistic and historical landscape painting the canvas of our people’s diversity. The South African Constitution unambiguously speaks to this in its’ preamble: South Africa belongs to all who live in it – united in our diversity – in the wider context of a nation and country recognising the injustices of our past; honouring those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land as well as respecting those who have worked to build and develop our country.

ARTICLE: PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA’S DOUBLETHINK HERITAGE DAY STATEMENT

2020-09-23

In his dystopian novel “1984” George Orwell introduced us to the concept of “doublethink” – which he described as –

“…the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them… To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just as long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies – all this is indispensably necessary.”

We saw examples of doublethink in President Ramaphosa’s statement on Heritage Day last week.

ARTICLE: HIGH NOON IN SENEKAL

2020-09-23

The long-simmering crisis of farm murders has come to a head following the murder on 1 October of a 21-year-old farm manager Brendin Horner at a farm outside Paul Roux in the Free State.

Horner’s body was found tied to a pole and the 21-year-old had injuries to the face and neck.

Only two days later police arrested two suspects, Sekola Piet Matlaletsa and Sekwetje Isaiah Mahlamba, in a township near Paul Roux. Blood-stained clothes and shoes were found in their possession.

ARTICLE: THE BRACKENFELL BOIL

2020-09-23

Every now and then a boil appears on the 26-year-old face of the New South Africa. One such boil erupted on 6 October in Senekal – and another earlier this week at Brackenfell High School in the Cape. These ugly eruptions may reflect more than just a passing hormonal imbalance: they could indicate a deeper underlying toxicity that might threaten the whole body politic.

ARTICLE: THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT ORDERS PARLIAMENT TO INSTITUTE ELECTORAL REFORM

2020-06-12

In an historic judgement yesterday, the Constitutional Court upheld the appeal of New Nation and others against the judgement last year of the Western Cape High Court regarding the right of individuals to stand as independent candidates in national and provincial elections. The Court declared that “the Electoral Act 73 of 1998 is unconstitutional to the extent that it requires that adult citizens may be elected to the National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures only through their membership of political parties.” It ordered Parliament to remedy this defect within the next 24 months – in time for the next national and provincial elections.

ARTICLE: TAKING STOCK AT THE BEGINNING OF PHASE III

2020-06-01

Now that we are entering Phase III of the COVID19 lockdown process, this may be a good time to take stock.

We live in the strangest of times. The world’s great airports are idle. Hundreds of thousands of hotels have closed. Schools and universities are empty. Millions of restaurants are shut. Everywhere owners of small and medium-size businesses are wracking their brains and scraping the barrel of their resources to keep their doors open. Tens of millions throughout the world have lost their jobs – and tens of millions more are subsisting on greatly reduced wages.

ARTICLE: BOIPATONG

2020-06-01

On 17 June the EFF issued a statement to mark the 28^th anniversary of the Boipatong massacre. It stated that the massacre had been orchestrated by “an Apartheid government led by FW de Klerk” who had “funded and supported the massacre in order to undermine negotiations…”

I remember Boipatong.

ARTICLE: THE DISMANTLING OF APARTHEID

2020-06-01

There has recently been some debate regarding when, how and by whom apartheid was dismantled. The “why” of the dismantling of apartheid is more complex: growing international pressure and domestic resistance undoubtedly played a central role. However, other factors included the evolving attitudes of white South Africans; growing acceptance of the injustice of apartheid among white leadership groups; and the irresistible need to adjust policy to accommodate the de facto realities of an increasingly integrated economy and society.

ARTICLE: THE EMPLOYMENT EQUITY ACT (EEA) AMENDMENT BILL, 2020 AND DEMOGRAPHIC REPRESENTIVITY

2020-06-01

Few people would disagree with the Employment Equity Act’s goals of “eliminating unfair discrimination in employment” and ensuring equitable access to the economy for all South Africans. We need an open, equitable and non-discriminatory economy.

However, in its pursuit of these goals the EEA has now become a core tool in the ANC’s project to reshape society and the economy according to demographic representivity (DR). The ANC’s objective has long been to ensure that DR is achieved in the private sector to the same degree that it is already a reality in the public sector. As Rob Davis put it in 2012 “We need to make sure that in the country’s economy, control, ownership and leadership are reflective of the demographics of the society in the same way that the political space does.”

View Archived Content

ARTICLE: Heritage Day – 24 September 2020: Uniting from a Distance

ARTICLE: PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA’S DOUBLETHINK HERITAGE DAY STATEMENT

ARTICLE: HIGH NOON IN SENEKAL

ARTICLE: THE BRACKENFELL BOIL

ARTICLE: THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT ORDERS PARLIAMENT TO INSTITUTE ELECTORAL REFORM

ARTICLE: TAKING STOCK AT THE BEGINNING OF PHASE III

ARTICLE: BOIPATONG

ARTICLE: THE DISMANTLING OF APARTHEID

ARTICLE: THE EMPLOYMENT EQUITY ACT (EEA) AMENDMENT BILL, 2020 AND DEMOGRAPHIC REPRESENTIVITY

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