CONSTITUTIONAL COMMENTARY AND EVENTS

ARTICLES AND STATEMENTS

PODCASTS

SUBMISSIONS

ARTICLE: THE BRACKENFELL BOIL

Heritage Day

Every now and then a boil appears on the 26-year-old face of the New South Africa. One such boil erupted on 6 October in Senekal – and another earlier this week at Brackenfell High School in the Cape. These ugly eruptions may reflect more than just a passing hormonal imbalance: they could indicate a deeper underlying toxicity that might threaten the whole body politic.

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ARTICLE: THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT ORDERS PARLIAMENT TO INSTITUTE ELECTORAL REFORM

In an historic judgement yesterday, the Constitutional Court upheld the appeal of New Nation and others against the judgement last year of the Western Cape High Court regarding the right of individuals to stand as independent candidates in national and provincial elections. The Court declared that “the Electoral Act 73 of 1998 is unconstitutional to the extent that it requires that adult citizens may be elected to the National Assembly and Provincial Legislatures only through their membership of political parties.” It ordered Parliament to remedy this defect within the next 24 months – in time for the next national and provincial elections.

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ARTICLE: BOIPATONG

GraemeWilliams Boipatong

On 17 June the EFF issued a statement to mark the 28th anniversary of the Boipatong massacre.  It stated that the massacre had been orchestrated by “an Apartheid government led by FW de Klerk” who had “funded and supported the massacre in order to undermine negotiations…”

I remember Boipatong. 

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SPEECHES

EVENTS

ACCESS TO JUSTICE IS ERODING – AND SOUTH AFRICANS ARE PAYING THE PRICE

Access to courts is a constitutional right to have disputes decided in a fair public hearing before a court or an independent tribunal. Yet, the FW de Klerk Foundation’s latest Human Rights Report Card warns that while the legal system looks robust on paper, the degree to which South Africans enjoy this right in their daily lives is unmistakably declining.

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A RIGHT WITHOUT QUALITY: THE ONGOING STRUGGLE FOR EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA

Daniela Ellerbeck and Mpone Komako explain why the Foundation’s latest Human Rights Report Card ranks the right to education as the sixth most threatened in South Africa, highlighting the stark contrast between a record matric pass rate and a deepening early-grade reading crisis, alongside persistent infrastructure and transport gaps and widespread teacher shortages.

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CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES