LETTER: RADICAL CLASH WITH THE CONSTITUTION
2015-08-12
We welcome reassurances by South African Communist Party (SACP) deputy general secretary Jeremy Cronin of his devotion to the Constitution (A distortion to stir the demagogues, Letters, Business Day, August 11.
However, his criticism of Paul Hoffman’s view that “those who subscribe to the values of the national democratic revolution (NDR)” are “anticonstitutionalists” is disingenuous. The NDR is, in fact, profoundly irreconcilable with the Constitution – and particularly with its foundational value of non-racialism (and thus by extension with the foundational values of human dignity and equality as well).
The FW de Klerk Foundation has called on the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to remove quotas based on national demographics for Coloured fishermen from its recently announced Draft Sector Specific Policies for the Allocation of Fishing Rights in a wide range of fisheries.
The Department of Trade and Industry has just published the latest version of the Promotion and Protection of Investment Bill. The Bill has its origins in the government’s wish to reassure foreign investors who were alarmed by South Africa’s decision three years ago to terminate its Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) with a number of European countries. Its purpose is supposedly to provide for “the legislative protection of investors” and the “promotion of investment”.
In celebration of the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela, and in keeping with the theme of ‘take action; inspire change’, staff of the FW de Klerk Foundation and its Centre for Constitutional Rights (the CFCR) will be donating their ‘67 minutes’ to Autism Western Cape on Friday, 17 July. The Foundation has a long-standing relationship with Autism Western Cape, which provides support, advisory services, training, counselling and other resources to autistic children and their families – free of charge.
There has recently been a revealing polemical exchange between Joel Netshitenzhe, the former chief ideologist of the National Democratic Revolution, and the SACP’s chief ideologist, Jeremy Cronin.
Former President FW de Klerk and the FW de Klerk Foundation would like to offer their heartfelt support to Chaeli and her team as they climb Mount Kilimanjaro in August 2015.