CONSTITUTIONAL COMMENTARY AND EVENTS
ARTICLES AND STATEMENTS
TRANSITIONS IN A MULTI-ETHNIC SOCIETY: THE SOUTH AFRICAN EXPERIENCE
SPEECH BY FORMER PRESIDENT FW DE KLERK TO THE INTERNATIONAL PEACE SYMPOSIUM BRUSSELS 4 NOVEMBER 2013 TRANSITIONS IN A MUTLI-ETHNIC SOCIETY: A SOUTH AFRICAN EXPERIENCE
ARTICLE: CHURCH AND STATE
No doubt to the alarm of his minders and keepers, President Zuma deviated from the prepared text of his speech yesterday to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Giyani, Limpopo. His speech should have been suitably innocuous – with a nod to the older generation on International Grandparents Day, exhortations to the youth and the expression of justifiable pride in the fact that the number of children infected with HIV within the East and Southern African region has more than halved in the past 10 years. There was only one reference to “apartheid colonialism” – and for the rest, the tone of the speech was suitably presidential.
ARTICLE: CONFUSING RACIAL PREJUDICE WITH LANGUAGE RIGHTS
Remarks made by Prof Jonathan Jansen – Rector of the University of the Free State – in the Percy Baneshik Memorial Lecture to the English Academy of South Africa on 18 September, have caused a furore in Afrikaans cultural and educational circles. They have been widely interpreted as a call for English-only education and as a claim that “Afrikaans-exclusive or even Afrikaans-dominant white schools and universities represent a serious threat to race relations in South Africa”.
PODCASTS
SUBMISSIONS
SPEECHES
EVENTS
ARTICLE: READY, SET, GO: ELECTION 2019
Election years are notably different. Ordinary people suddenly have the ear of government, you are actively courted by political parties and are on the receiving end of myriad promises, some of which have waiting periods from one election year to the next.
STATEMENT: SOUTH AFRICA’S TRUTH FEST – BUT WHERE ARE THE CONSEQUENCES?
The media is replete with reportage on commissions and inquiries currently underway in South Africa, all intent on unearthing the truth – the truth about State capture and corruption (Zondo Commision), the truth about the fitness of two top officials in the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to hold office (Mokgoro Commission), the truth about tax administration and governance at SARS (the Nugent Inquiry) and the truth about the PIC, Africa’s largest asset manager (the Mpati Commission).
President Cyril Ramaphosa did indeed provide relief to a nation fatigued by corruption, capture and abuse of public funds by setting up or boosting these commissions of inquiry within nine months of his assumption of duties. He committed to cleaning up SARS, seeking new leadership at the NPA and at several State-owned enterprises (SOEs) including Eskom, PRASA, the SABC, Denel, and Transnet. He committed to unearthing the truth and setting the country on the right track.
ARTICLE: THE CASE OF RE-RANKING AND PROMOTIONS OF MK VETERANS IN SAPS – WHAT IS AT ISSUE
Section 195(1) of the Constitution stipulates clearly the guiding values and principles that public administration must adhere to. It emphasises the need for transparency in public administration, and providing the public with “timely, accessible and accurate information”. This section requires “good human resource management” and “career development practices” to effectively “maximise human potential”. It also stipulates clearly that “employment and personnel management practices” in public administration must be based on “ability, objectivity, fairness and the need to redress the imbalances of the past to achieve broad representation”.
These provisions are constitutional standards, which must be given effect to in national legislation and are a standard against which public administration must be measured. Section 195 of the Constitution is not a mere paper right – it carries weighty constitutional standards.
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