ARTICLE: THE STATE OF PARLIAMENT
2015-06-30
The FW de Klerk Foundation shares the concerns of participants in a recent private round-table discussion – mentioned in Business Day – on the functioning of Parliament, which was hosted by the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC).
The theatrical disruption of Parliament by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is unacceptable – however necessary it may be to hold the President accountable over the Nkandla issue.
In an article in Tuesday’s Media24 publications Max du Preez states that Dylann Roof, accused of killing nine black worshippers in Charleston, S. Carolina, “shares apartheid’s ideology.” Du Preez goes on to say that Barend Strydom’s random killing of seven black South Africans in 1989 made him think “that his (Roof’s) identification with apartheid wasn’t so inappropriate after all.”
800 years ago, on 15 June 1215, in a plashy meadow beside the River Thames in England, an event took place that would deeply affect the constitutional future – not only of the English people – but of countries throughout the world, including South Africa. On that day King John was forced by his barons to sign the Magna Carta – a document that introduced for the first time the notion that kings – and by extension governments – are ultimately subject to the Rule of Law.
Every now and then it is necessary to summon up the fortitude to read what the SACP is saying to its own support base in the Alliance. It was in this spirit that I recently delved into the 3 100 word message of Jeremy Cronin, the SACP’s 1st Deputy General Secretary, to the National Union of Mineworkers 15th National Congress.
Niël Barnard’s autobiography, Secret Revolution, provides an interesting insight into the secret negotiations between Nelson Mandela and the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in 1988/89 that helped prepare the way to the constitutional transformation of South Africa. 
In 2002 the United Nations declared 21 May World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.
Language of instruction is a key issue at the heart of debate in most multilingual countries.
On 1 May, South Africa will once again celebrate Workers’ Day – although, in truth, there is nothing to celebrate.
Race relations in South Africa are more fractious now than they have been at any time since 1994.