CONSTITUTIONAL COMMENTARY AND EVENTS
ARTICLES AND STATEMENTS
ARTICLE: INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR TOLERANCE 2016
On 16 November each year, since 1995, members of the UN pause (or not) to reflect on the meanings of tolerance and its destructive converse, intolerance.
In declaring a Day of Tolerance, UNESCO asserts in the preamble of the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance, the reference to the UN Charter, which states, “We, the people of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, …to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, …and for these ends to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours”.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADV BIZOS
On behalf of the FW de Klerk Foundation, we salute a brave warrior of freedom and democracy, George Bizos, on his 88th birthday.
May the year be filled with blessings and good health for you and may you continue to be our lodestar in trying times.
STATEMENT: NOT MERELY THE RANTINGS OF AN INFANTILE POLITICIAN
According to media reports and transcripts Julius Malema told his supporters outside the Newcastle Magistrate’s Court yesterday that:
“We, the rightful owners, our peace was disturbed by white man’s arrival here…They killed our people during land dispossession…They found peaceful Africans here. They killed them! They slaughtered them, like animals! We are not calling for the slaughter of white people, at least for now”.
“We will not chase white people into the sea. We will give them portion…That is where you stay. And you can’t own bigger than us. You are a visitor. Visitors must behave. They must know the land belongs to the people of South Africa, the indigenous people of South Africa… No white person is a rightful owner of the land here in South Africa and in the whole of the African continent. This is our continent; it belongs to us”.
PODCASTS
SUBMISSIONS
SPEECHES
EVENTS
SPEECH: LAW, JUSTICE AND JUSTIFICATION
It is a great honour for me to address such an important and interesting conference at my old Alma Mater. The theme of the conference is as daunting as it is interesting – dealing as it does with ‘Reformation theology and its impact on world societies after 500 years’. I must point out at the outset that I am a lawyer and not a theologian – so offer the following comments with some trepidation.
STATEMENT: CFCR WELCOMES PUBLICATION OF RULES FOR REMOVAL OF CHAPTER 9 HEAD
On Tuesday, 26 November 2019, the National Assembly’s (NA) Rules Committee announced that it had agreed to Draft Rules to Regulate the Removal of Office Holders of Institutions Supporting Constitutional Democracy (the Rules). The Rules will govern the removal from office of heads of offices such as that of the Auditor-General and the Public Protector.
The drafting of these Rules has been driven in earnest by the repeated calls for the removal of the Public Protector, Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane, by the official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, as well as civil society. The calls for her removal stem from multiple court findings against the Public Protector in her personal capacity, and against her Office. Of these, the most notable have been the ABSA/Bankorp matter, in which the Public Protector’s Report was set aside, and she was ordered to pay 15% of the South African Reserve Bank’s legal fees. More recently, she was ordered to pay 5% of the legal costs of each of the two applicants in the Estina Dairy case.
ARTICLE: DOES THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT JUDGMENT SIGNAL THE END FOR AFRIKAANS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
The dust has settled a bit regarding the Constitutional Court’s ruling in the Gelyke Kanse (GK) case on Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Language Policy (read the full analysis of the case here). The implications of this ruling are relevant for SU and the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University (NWU Potch); and perhaps most importantly of all, for Afrikaans as a language of instruction in public schools.
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