ARTICLE: SUBMISSION ON THE ELECTORAL AMENDMENT BILL (B1 -20220)
2022-02-23
Yesterday the FW de Klerk Foundation submitted its comments on the Electoral Amendment Bill to the Home Affairs Portfolio Committee.
Yesterday the FW de Klerk Foundation submitted its comments on the Electoral Amendment Bill to the Home Affairs Portfolio Committee.
SUBMISSION ON THE ELECTORAL AMENDMENT BILL (B1 -20220) Yesterday the FW de Klerk Foundation submitted its comments on the Electoral Amendment Bill to the Home
By the FW de Klerk Foundation On 10 December 1996 – 25 years ago – President Mandela signed the 1996 Constitution into law in the
The draft constitutional amendment bill (the Bill) allowing land expropriation without compensation (EWC) is already damaging enough to make South Africa largely uninvestable.
Recent statements made by a senior advocate, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, who is currently serving in an acting capacity as a judge in the South African Land Claims Court, raise a number of considerations and serious questions about what constitutes South Africa’s constitutional project – particularly when considering the possibility of expropriation of property without compensation (EWC).
Judge Jody Kollapen is one of eight candidates who are being interviewed this week by the Judicial Service Commission to fill two vacancies on the Constitutional Court. In the course of his interview he is reported to have said that “in the transition to democracy, South Africans had perhaps focused too much on reconciliation and not enough on transformation.” He added that “reconciliation could not be achieved without transformation – without all South Africans accessing the economy.”
It is crucial that racist and hurtful non-inclusive behaviour anywhere in South Africa should be addressed with firmly and effectively. Equally critical is a unified and unambiguous condemnation by all South Africans – including government – of racist threats and instigation of violence as such actions have the potential of provoking racial conflict that would cause immense harm to South Africa – we have seen this in Senekal and, more recently, Brackenfell.
It is once again a great pleasure for me to address the Cape Town Press Club.
I shall spend a little more time today on the past than on the future ‐ because, at the age of 84, I have much more past than future ‐ and also because the past has become an increasingly contentious issue, not only for the present ‐ but also for the future.
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.