CASE DISCUSSION: WHEN GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS FAIL: SOUTH AFRICAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION AND OTHERS V THE DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE AND OTHERS
The recent ruling of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and Others v The Democratic Alliance and Others, which upheld the decision of the Western Cape High Court and dismissed the SABC’s appeal on behalf of its Chief Operating Officer (COO) Hlaudi Motsoeneng and the Minister of Communications, is a welcome one. This is because it serves to cement the authority of the office of the Public Protector, as well as those of other Chapter 9 institutions.
The matter commenced in the Western Cape High Court as a result of the publicised irregular appointment of the COO into his current position and the ensuing investigation into the same, as well as maladministration of the national broadcaster by the Minister of Communications.
The Centre for Constitutional Rights (the CFCR) welcomes a unanimous judgment by the Constitutional Court in which the Court set aside the results of a number of by-elections in Tlokwe Local Municipality and ordered fresh by-elections – because the elections were not free and fair.
On 22 September 2015 the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CFCR) and the School of Public Leadership (SPL) at Stellenbosch University (SU), supported by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), hosted the fourth in a series of breakfast discussions for 2015. The aim of these discussions is to create a platform for conversation and debate about the Constitution and good public leadership.
The Centre for Constitutional Rights (the CFCR) welcomes Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng’s intervention in relation to the recent spate of 
Ladies and gentlemen,
“The basis of a democratic state is liberty” – Aristotle
The Public Protector’s report into the non-security upgrades at the President’s homestead at Nkandla found that the President had unduly benefited from improvements and additions at his private residence and that he had tacitly accepted those improvements.
Section 25 of the Constitution, the property clause reflects a delicate balancing act between the protection of private property rights on the one hand and serving the public interest largely in the realm of land reform on the other hand. Arguably, the provisions in the property clause strike a proportionate balance between the two latter functions. This may well be about to change should the governing party’s policy proposals, most recently echoed by President Zuma during his 2015 State of the Nation Address, be passed into law.