CONSTITUTIONAL COMMENTARY AND EVENTS
ARTICLES AND STATEMENTS
STATEMENT: SPEECH BY FW DE KLERK TO THE WOORDFEES IN STELLENBOSCH
In a speech in Stellenbosch on 9 March, FW de Klerk said that the Woordfees provided “evidence of the vitality of Afrikaans as the language in which seven million South Africans of all races think, speak, create and dream”.
ARTICLE: PRESIDENT ZUMA’S SONA RESPONSE
Many South Africans were charmed by the more conciliatory tone that President Zuma adopted in his response last week during to the State of the Nation (SONA) Debate.
ARTICLE: INTERNATIONAL MOTHER LANGUAGE DAY 2015 – INCLUSION IN AND THROUGH EDUCATION: LANGUAGE COUNTS
International Mother Language Day, proclaimed in 1999 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), is the occasion to celebrate linguistic diversity.
PODCASTS
SUBMISSIONS
SPEECHES
EVENTS
ARTICLE: THE SEMINAL CHALLENGES CONFRONTING PRESIDENT RAMAPHOSA
Cyril Ramaphosa’s election as President of the ANC at NASREC in December 2017 was the second great turning point in the history of the new South Africa. The first had come at the ANC’s elective conference at Polokwane in 2007, when Jacob Zuma had defeated an astonished Thabo Mbeki in the election for the ANC’s presidency.
Zuma’s victory had its roots in a decision that was taken at COSATU’s 9th Congress in 2006 when the organisation decided to launch a battle for the ‘heart and soul’ of the ANC. It resolved, among other things, that “the working class must re-direct the NDR towards socialism and jealously guard it against opportunistic tendencies that are attempting to wrest it from achieving its logical conclusion, which is socialism”.
STATEMENT: CONGRATULATIONS AND “STERKTE” MR PRESIDENT!
The FW de Klerk Foundation wishes to congratulate Mr Cyril Matamela Ramaphosa on being elected unopposed as President of the Republic of South Africa. We have, in the beginning of his tenure as President, often stated that we will support him in his endeavours to re-instate clean government, eradicate State capture and corruption, and rejuvenate the economy. We have also stated that in this, we will watch him closely.
We therefore welcome his first statements after his election as President, inter alia that he will serve all the people of South Africa, and not just the ANC; that he will (as Madiba), not lose touch with the needs of ordinary South Africans, and that he will collaborate constructively with leaders of opposition parties to find and implement solutions for our predicament. These are the words of a statesman and stand in stark contrast to the views and actions of his predecessor.
ARTICLE: POST 2019 ELECTIONS: TIME FOR ELECTORAL REFORM AND DUSTING OFF THE VAN ZYL SLABBERT REPORT
In the aftermath of a highly-contested national and provincial election, questions must be asked why only 65.99% of registered voters turned out to vote, compared with 89.3% in 1999. There might be many factors contributing to this low turnout, such as voter disillusionment following State capture, corruption, lack of accountability and an ailing economy. However, there are other possible explanations: it may be that voters do not feel that they are properly represented by the people who sit in Parliament; and that Parliament has simply become a rubber stamp in the hands of the Executive.
The real problem may be the lack of a proper relationship between voters and their representatives in Parliament – the root of which, may lie in our electoral system itself.
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