On Tuesday, 26 November 2019, the National Assembly’s (NA) Rules Committee announced that it had agreed to Draft Rules to Regulate the Removal of Office Holders of Institutions Supporting Constitutional Democracy (the Rules). The Rules will govern the removal from office of heads of offices such as that of the Auditor-General and the Public Protector. 

The drafting of these Rules has been driven in earnest by the repeated calls for the removal of the Public Protector, Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, by the official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, as well as civil society. The calls for her removal stem from multiple court findings against the Public Protector in her personal capacity, and against her Office. Of these, the most notable have been the ABSA/Bankorp matter, in which the Public Protector’s Report was set aside, and she was ordered to pay 15% of the South African Reserve Bank’s legal fees. More recently, she was ordered to pay 5% of the legal costs of each of the two applicants in the Estina Dairy case.

25 November marks the annual commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, as well as the commencement of the United Nation’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) campaign. This campaign is an annual movement aimed at galvanising action, raising awareness, and honouring and acknowledging powerful women’s movements whose unrelenting work seeks to create and foster safer environments for women and children, wherever they may find themselves. The 16 Days Campaign comes to an end on 10 December, which is also International Human Rights Day, when the world recognises the great strides that have been made in the protection and promotion of universal human rights. 

World Children’s Day is commemorated annually on 20 November to celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 1959. It is also the date when the UNGA adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989. Thus, 2019 is a particularly special year as it marks 30 years of the CRC, which is the most widely adopted international agreement in history. 

This wide ratification speaks to the general consensus on the need to protect and do what is in the best interests of all children on the part of governments and humanity. In the last 30 years, monumental progress has been made in the arena of children’s rights across the world. Human rights advocacy has led to children living longer and healthier lives, with better access to safe water and nutrition. Despite these enormous milestones, far too many are still exposed to heinous human rights abuses. From female genital mutilation, human trafficking, child labour, child soldiers and famine, to poverty, hunger and poor or no access to education. As is usually the case, the poorest and most vulnerable in our society experience the worst of these human rights violations. 

Join us for the fourth in a series of discussions for 2019, hosted by the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CFCR) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS).

Topic:   “Unpacking the National Health Insurance Bill” 

The CFCR has invited experts to analyse the implications of the National Health Insurance Bill (NHI Bill) and to analyse the feasibility of the provisions. The NHI Bill was recently tabled in Parliament and public comment on the Bill is currently sought. 

Speakers:      

• Mr Michael Settas, member of the Free Market Foundations’ Health Policy Unit
• Mr Russell Rensburg, Director of the Rural Health Advocacy Project

From 8 October 2019, foreign nationals who have been living in South Africa as refugees and asylum-seekers camped outside the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) offices in both Cape Town and Pretoria. They were (and are still) seeking to be resettled in other countries, following the most recent spate of violent xenophobic attacks in the country. The September attacks sparked international outrage and saw 12 people dead (most of whom were South African), hundreds arrested and property damage worth thousands of Rands in the streets of Johannesburg.

THE CONSTITUTION @ WORK

Join us for the third in a series of breakfast discussions for 2019 hosted by the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CFCR) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS). 

Topic: “Unpacking the report of the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture: The Pros and the Cons” 

The CFCR has invited experts to explore the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Panel on Land Reform and Agriculture’s Report. The Panel was mandated to provide policy perspective on land reform regarding restitution, redistribution and tenure reform and to consider among others, the circumstances under which expropriation without compensation will be applied.

On 12 September 2019, the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, released this year’s Crime Stats.  The Crime Stats cover the period from 1 April 2018, to 31 March 2019. They focus on 21 categories of crime, encompassing data collected from both the South African Police Service (SAPS), as well as the public. It is important that the statistics are released to keep the public informed of the state of affairs in a country that is rife with criminal activity. However, it is just as important to understand that the crime stats play an even bigger role than mere information circulation. 

October 11 is commemorated annually across the world to highlight the many ways gender inequality impacts young girls and their access to fundamental human rights. This day was first commemorated in 2012 and finds its origins in the United Nations (UN), which noted the need to address discrimination against girls in all spheres of life. According to the UN, there are over one billion girls in the world. This commemoration provides an opportunity for governments, society and organisations to raise awareness about the challenges faced by girls and to reaffirm their commitment to making much-needed changes. This year’s theme is “GirlForce: Unscripted and Unstoppable” and this year, the aim is to celebrate the achievements made by girls since the 1995 adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Beijing Declaration), a comprehensive policy agenda for women’s empowerment aimed at removing all the obstacles to women’s equal and active participation in all spheres of life. 

On Thursday, 10 October, the majority of the Constitutional Court held that the University of Stellenbosch’s contentious 2016 Language Policy (US 2016 Language Policy), which effectively provided for the increase of English tuition to broaden access to the University, with no similar provision for Afrikaans tuition, was constitutionally valid. The Gelyke Kanse and Others versus the Chairman of the Senate of the University of Stellenbosch and Others matter (Gelyke Kanse matter) was heard on appeal from the Western Cape High Court, which dismissed the review of US’s 2016 Language Policy in October 2017.