On 16 August 2016 the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CFCR) hosted its first breakfast discussion in conjunction with the Centre for Human Rights (CHR) at the University of Pretoria, supported by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS). The breakfast discussions aim to stimulate a platform for debate and dialogue about the Constitution and good public leadership.

The dialogue was structured as a roundtable forum, which included an in depth-discussion between dignitaries and the broader audience. Guests who attended the breakfast were from a myriad of disciplines including government, diplomatic circles, academia, civil society and the media. The overarching themes of the event included electoral reform and state accountability. Both panel and audience members flushed out the underpinnings of the current electoral system and gave critical insight into potential reform frameworks.

The Centre for Constitutional Rights welcomes the Constitutional Court’s (the Court) decision in Electoral Commission v Mhlope and Others, handed down today, in which the importance of free and fair elections for South Africa is underscored.

The case arose as an appeal by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of the Electoral Court’s earlier decision to postpone by-elections in Tlokwe over irregularities on names in the voters’ roll. The Electoral Court had held that permitting elections while 4000 names on the voters’ roll lacked addresses would mean that the ensuing elections would not be free and fair, in direct contravention of section 19 in the Constitution, which provides every adult South African with the right to free, fair and regular elections.

On 31 May, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) handed down a technical judgment on the amendment of the Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy (the Policy) in 2015 by the Minister of Communications (Minister). The issue concerned the legality of the Policy and was found by the SCA to be both procedurally and substantively irrational.

The Policy was first published in 2008 in terms of the Electronic Communications Act (ECA) which, together with the Constitution, empowers the Minister to make policy regarding broadcasting. The Policy is aimed at facilitating the migration of South Africa from analogue terrestrial television to digital terrestrial television, which is needed to free up signal space (digital migration process).

It is time that the Commission’s Act was amended in order to give greater meaning to constitutional values. The Constitution enables the President, as well as Provincial Premiers, to appoint Commissions of Inquiry. This authority to appoint Commissions of Inquiry can be further delegated to allow Ministerial Commissions, as well as other Commissions at local level.

The Arms Procurement Commission (popularly known as the Seriti Commission) was established in terms of the Commissions Act of 1947. The same Act provides that Commissions have to report their findings to the President before such findings are made known to the general public. Further, Commissions can only make recommendations to the government. As such, Commissions are not obliged to make their reports open to the public and neither is the government obliged to act directly on the recommendations of the Commission.