CONSTITUTIONAL COMMENTARY AND EVENTS
ARTICLES AND STATEMENTS
ARTICLE: AN ABOMINATION – AGAIN
Playing Fast and Loose with State Resources
While some would call it a confession, others have referred to it as a disclosure. Newly-minted Energy Minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi, revealed to a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on 2 May 2017 that South Africa’s strategic oil reserves were sold and not ‘rotated’ by her predecessor Tina Joemat-Pettersson, leaving the country reeling, yet again.
When the story broke almost six months after the sale of the 10 million barrels of crude in December 2015, then Energy Minister Joemat-Pettersson dismissed media enquiries as silly nonsense and that ‘rotating’ old stock of crude oil had a precedent way back when. There was little more concrete information forthcoming from her before she tossed the Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF), a unit of the Central Energy Fund (CEF), into the fray. The Department of Energy, as the largest shareholder of the CEF, was simply following the orders of its principle, the Minister.
ARTICLE: AN ABOMINATION – AGAIN
While some would call it a confession, others have referred to it as a disclosure.
STATEMENT: STATEMENT BY THE FW DE KLERK FOUNDATION ON THE NATIONAL FOUNDATIONS DIALOGUE INITIATIVE
IT IS TIME TO START TALKING TO EACH OTHER (AGAIN)
Last Thursday was Freedom Day, the celebration of the birth of the “New South Africa” in 1994. But we are far away from the positive attitude and euphoria that were part of 27 April 1994. Instead, our country faces numerous serious challenges, amongst them the quality of leadership, corruption, state capture, racial polarisation, unemployment, poverty and inequality. Most importantly, many of these challenges are characterised by the lack of respect for our Constitution, or by lack of implementing the Constitution and its principles.
As the FW de Klerk Foundation, we are in full consensus with our fellow Foundations that our country is in a crisis, a crisis that can only be addressed if we start talking to each other again. We need to start a new National Dialogue. This National Dialogue will endeavour to bring together all South Africans at various levels, to have rational and deliberate discussions about the future we want and how we should get there. This will re-establish the truth that our future is in our own hands. We are in full agreement with the other Foundations that our National Dialogue takes as its point of departure our Constitution, the Rule of Law and our constitutional democracy. The Constitution has been our salvation in trying times – despite attempts to challenge and dismiss it. The Constitution’s fortitude is supreme and speaks to the strength of South Africans to re-emerge per the spirit of the document.
PODCASTS
SUBMISSIONS
SPEECHES
EVENTS
STATEMENT: DRAFT FILMS AND PUBLICATIONS AMENDMENT REGULATIONS
PROPOSED ONLINE CENSORSHIP OF SOUTH AFRICA: DRAFT FILMS AND PUBLICATIONS AMENDMENT REGULATIONS
The South African Film and Publication Board (SAFPB) recently published the Draft Films and Publications Amendment Regulations for public comment. The Regulations – which would be promulgated under the Films and Publications Amendment Act 11 of 2019 (the FPAA) – will be administered by the Board – and apply to the sale, hiring and streaming of content on the internet and various other digital platforms in South Africa.
STATEMENT: FW DE KLERK WITHDRAWS HIS ACCEPTANCE OF AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION’S INVITATION
Former President FW de Klerk was recently invited to participate in one of a series of interviews that Jonathan Granoff, the President of the Global Security Institute, has been conducting with the American Bar Association.
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.
CONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES
- Equality
- Non-racialism
- Gender Rights
- The Constitution
- The Rule of Law
- Multiparty Democracy
- Personal Rights
- Cultural, Religious and Language Rights
- Freedom of Expression and Political Rights
- Social and Economic Rights
- Property Rights
- Education
- Access To The Courts, Information And Fair Adminstration