CONSTITUTIONAL COMMENTARY AND EVENTS

Yesterday evening FW de Klerk spoke at the historic Frauenkirche in Dresden as part of the church’s Nobel Peace Prize Laureates lecture series. His topic was the accommodation of diversity as the main challenge to peace in the 21st century.

De Klerk pointed out that much of human history had been driven by the movement of people and the growth of populations. He said that now, once again, people were on the move. “The dominant image of our time might be the hundreds of thousands of refugees who each year are risking their lives in unseaworthy boats to reach Europe.” 

He observed that all this was happening at a time of the unsustainable growth of the human population and dramatic changes in life expectancy and fertility.

In 1950, global life expectancy was only 47 years – by 2011 it had increased to 70. A Japanese girl child born today could expect to live to 107. At the same time fertility rates in many European countries had plummeted far below the levels required to sustain present populations.

In the coming years, more and more refugees could be expected to seek safety and a better life in the prosperous and secure societies of Europe and North America.

As we stare into the abyss as a nation the morning after the night before, we are asking ourselves, how can he, why did he, and could he really? A wholesale firing of a quarter of the Cabinet is a monumental act of confidence by the President as leader of SA Inc. Sadly, in this case, the act was not in the name of government or the electorate but driven by the antithesis of accountable leadership. The words of Howard Gardner, author and psychologist, Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership, came to mind as the nation woke up this morning. He describes a leader “as a person who is responsible, trusted, consistent, honest, and faithful. Leadership therefore exemplifies integrity and willingness to make sacrifices for the good of the governed”.

The actions of the President over the last 24 hours belie the very values ascribed to accountable leaders as described above but more painfully, contravene the very moral and ethical basis of the struggle for freedom and democracy in South Africa.

The country has come a long way precisely because of an abundance of ethical and accountable leadership, in the persons of Nelson Mandela and also FW de Klerk, who risked power and reputation to put country first at the dawn of democracy. Said FW de Klerk: “I played an integral part in helping formulating that new vision…that we must abandon apartheid and accept one united South Africa with equal rights for all, with all forms of discrimination to be scrapped from the statute book”. These powerful words attest to a man who sacrificed interest and power that came with the highest office in the land to nurture a democratic future guided by the Constitution and Bill of Rights.