Constitutional transformation Archives - Page 12 of 23

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: LITIGATION BY THE HELEN SUZMAN FOUNDATION REGARDING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF THE COVID19 CRISIS

2020-05-22

The FW de Klerk foundation welcomes the Helen Suzman Foundation’s (HSF) application, direct to the Constitutional Court, to declare that Parliament, the President and the Cabinet have failed to fulfill their obligations under the Constitution to prepare and adopt legislation to regulate the state’s response to the threat posed by COVID19.

The HSF has asked the Court to direct the Cabinet and Parliament to prepare and adopt such legislation – and to declare that the powers that the Minister of Cooperative Governance has assumed under the Disaster Management Act to manage the crisis will be terminated as soon as the requested legislation has been adopted.

ARTICLE: DEFENDING THE 1996 CONSTITUTION

2020-05-05

In six articles that recently appeared in Politicsweb, Prof Koos Malan provided an expert analysis of many of the problems facing the constitution.

He is clearly not a fan of the 1996 constitution. He questions the wisdom of those who have put their faith in the prospect that it would “usher in and guarantee peace, reconciliation and the protection of rights for all.”

He goes on to question the premises on which so many South Africans have based their faith in the constitution – that it is ‘supreme’, that it contains adequate checks and balances – and that it will be administered by a fearless and impartial judiciary.

ARTICLE: THE MAKANA JUDGEMENT – A SMALL NEW DAWN FOR LOCAL AUTHORITIES?

2020-03-17

The shocking state of local government finances and service delivery is well known. The 2019 Auditor-General’s report on the state of local government finances showed that more than a third of the 257 municipalities and 21 municipal entities were dysfunctional. Only 8% received a clean audit (versus 14% in 2016/17). When traveling in the north of the country, especially in the countryside, the decline of smaller towns in terms of maintenance of roads, water and sewage is evident. Standerton (Lekwa) was in the news last year when the municipality, which is only a few kilometres from the Vaal River and the Grootdraai Dam, was unable to supply water to the Astral Foods plant.

ARTICLE: THE ROAD TO 2 FEBRUARY 1990

2020-02-02

The road to 2 February 1990 can be traced back to the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910.

In 1909 Britain decided to establish a union of its principal colonies in southern Africa along the lines of the successful federations that it had set up in Australia and Canada. The difference was that in the other dominions the white populations greatly outnumbered the indigenous peoples – while in South Africa they comprised less than 25% of the total population.

Nevertheless, in keeping with the colonial approach of the times, Britain gave white South Africans a monopoly of power in the newly established Union. It was an arrangement that, in a rapidly changing world, would eventually prove to be untenable.

For the next 40 years South Africa developed along the lines of the other Commonwealth dominions. Until the mid-fifties, in a continent that was still dominated by European powers, white minority rule in South Africa seemed unexceptional. In a world in which racial discrimination was still shockingly the rule, South Africa’s segregation policies elicited little criticism.

SPEECH: HOPE FOR THE FUTURE: ACHIEVING THE VISION IN THE CONSTITUTION

2020-01-31

Last year the Wall Street Journal wrote that South Africa was at a crossroads, in 2018 the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement was too titled ‘South Africa at a Crossroads’, stressing the difficult economic and fiscal choices confronting the government, and in 2017 South Africa was once again at a crossroads according to a discussion held at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. No doubt an expert in something, somewhere, was saying we are at a crossroads the year before that, and again another ten years before that.

ARTICLE: FIVE TRENDS TO UNDERSTAND AND MANAGE 2020

2020-01-09

At the start of a new year, we all reflect on the year ahead, what we want to do, what we are excited about, and what we are afraid of. What about the country – politics, the economy and our social life? It is impossible to make predictions, but one can describe certain trends, which are accompanied by certain events and their possible consequences.

Broadly, there are five trends that emerged during 2019 that will significantly impact the political and socio-economic landscape in 2020 – and which can help one to understand and cope with the year.

The first is a growing trend of centralisation and state control (read ANC control) of various aspects of South African society. There are currently four pieces of draft legislation (most of which were recently published by the ANC-controlled Parliament before the December holidays) that have one thing in common: greater and/ or absolute control over important national issues, which do not necessarily need State control or that should not be controlled because it is in the private domain according to constitutional requirements.

ARTICLE: EWC OR ECONOMIC RECOVERY?

2019-11-08

The Ad Hoc Committee to Initiate and Introduce Legislation Amending Section 25 of the Constitution convened a “constitutional dialogue” in Cape Town on 6 November 2019 to which it invited members of the public and civil society organisations – including the FW de Klerk Foundation’s Centre for Constitutional Rights (CFCR).

The Ad Hoc Committee was appointed by Parliament following a resolution by the National Assembly on 6 December 2018, “to initiate and introduce legislation amending section 25 of the Constitution”. The Ad Hoc Committee was tasked with making “explicit that which is implicit in the Constitution” regarding expropriation without compensation (EWC) and was required to finalise its work by 31 March 2020.

ARTICLE: THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT AND GELYKE KANSE: WHAT HAPPENED?

2019-10-28

On October 10, 2019, the Constitutional Court ruled in the case in which Gelyke Kanse (GK) asked that the 2016 Language Policy of the University of Stellenbosch (SU) be set aside because it is unconstitutional. GK’s application was essentially an appeal against the Western Cape High Court’s earlier ruling, and a request to bypass the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) and approach the Constitutional Court directly. This was allowed.

The overall verdict – with which all 10 judges agreed – was written by Judge Edwin Cameron (who was recently appointed new Chancellor of the SU). There are also two additional rulings, one by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and the other by Judge Johan Froneman, which provide additional perspectives.

View Archived Content

ARTICLE: THE DISMANTLING OF APARTHEID

ARTICLE: LITIGATION BY THE HELEN SUZMAN FOUNDATION REGARDING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF THE COVID19 CRISIS

ARTICLE: DEFENDING THE 1996 CONSTITUTION

ARTICLE: THE MAKANA JUDGEMENT – A SMALL NEW DAWN FOR LOCAL AUTHORITIES?

ARTICLE: THE ROAD TO 2 FEBRUARY 1990

SPEECH: HOPE FOR THE FUTURE: ACHIEVING THE VISION IN THE CONSTITUTION

ARTICLE: FIVE TRENDS TO UNDERSTAND AND MANAGE 2020

ARTICLE: EWC OR ECONOMIC RECOVERY?

ARTICLE: THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT AND GELYKE KANSE: WHAT HAPPENED?

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