The Centre for Unity in Diversity (CUD) has responded to the Department of Arts and Culture’s (DAC) call for comments on its proposed and reviewed Official Language Policy as an important contribution to the promotion of language rights for all South Africans.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) recently announced that 48 parties will contest the national elections on 8 May. That is more than the 29 that took part in 2014 – a 65% increase! Will greater participation, however, give South Africa a better democracy?
The astonishing fact is that according to the IEC’s website, there are 312 parties registered at national level, and 294 at provincial level. The number of parties at national level shrank to 48 due to two factors. The first is the IEC’s own selection process, which led to 118 parties being de-registered and 29 applications being rejected. The second factor is that some parties (117) did not pay the registration fee needed to participate in the election. These costs are quite high – R200 000 to participate at national level, and then R45 000 per province. A party that wishes to participate at national level and in all the provinces will therefore have to pay R605 000. A smaller party could find it challenging to raise such a sum.
The Centre for Unity in Diversity (CUD), based at the FW de Klerk Foundation, avails itself to making a written submission in response to the invitation to submit comments on the proposed and reviewed Language Policy of the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC).
It is a tragedy that lasted 100 days and saw at least one million lives lost. Men, women and children were slaughtered and crushed in a hate-filled frenzy. Ethnic identity (reflected on identity cards and appearance) was the basis of death by guns, machetes and farming implements by neighbour on neighbour, youth militias and gendarmerie. Moderate Hutus and Twas were collateral damage in a hate-filled campaign to rid the country of Tutsis.
On the eve of the FW de Klerk Foundation’s 20th anniversary, the Foundation’s Board of Trustees has taken a number of important decisions. These are to ensure that the Foundation continues to play a significant role deep into the future in supporting the Constitution, promoting positive inter-community relations and commemorating FW de Klerk’s legacy.
The Foundation has decided to acquire its own offices, where it will establish an FW de Klerk Documentation Centre. One of the Centre’s core purposes will be to commemorate South Africa’s historic constitutional transformation process between 1990 and 1996, and the role that South Africans from all political parties played in this process. The Board believes – together with many others in South Africa and throughout the world – that this was one of South Africa’s greatest achievements.
The FW de Klerk Foundation is once again deeply concerned about the hate speech findings made by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) regarding certain statements made by Mr Malema and other members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). These include the Foundation’s initial complaint against Mr Malema in November 2016, in which he stated that “…We are not calling for the slaughtering of white people, at least for now ”. This was, inexplicably, found by the SAHRC not to be hate speech in terms of section 10 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (the Equality Act). The SAHRC found that none of the other complaints were hate speech in terms of the Equality Act.
The ANC recently published the list of its members who will go to Parliament following the May election. These people will form the ANC Caucus in Parliament; they must support President Ramaphosa in his plans to set the government and the economy on a firm footing. If one takes a closer look, and applies one’s mind, the compilation of this list is almost more important than the voting percentage of between 55% and 60% that the ANC is likely to get in the general election. The compilation of this list is the most recent barometer of how matters stand in the battle between the constitutionalists on the Ramaphosa side, and the kleptocrats on the Zupta side.
It is with the greatest concern that the FW de Klerk Foundation notes the 8 March 2019 finding of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in which it dismisses the Foundation’s complaint of November 2016 against Julius Malema. The Foundation lodged a complaint against Malema regarding a statement that he had made outside the Newcastle Magistrate Court, in which he had said, inter alia, that “…White people found peaceful Africans here. They killed them. They slaughtered them like animals. We are not calling for the slaughtering of white people, at least for now. What we are calling for is the peaceful occupation of land and we don’t owe anyone an apology for that.”
Join us for the first discussion for 2019 hosted by the Centre for Unity in Diversity (CUD) and supported by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS).
