CONSTITUTIONAL COMMENTARY AND EVENTS
ARTICLES AND STATEMENTS
PODCASTS
SUBMISSIONS
SPEECHES
EVENTS
ARTICLE: FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
This most famous line in John Donne’s 1624 oeuvre, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, best sum up what may have been an ideal following the transition to democracy in South Africa in 1994.
ARTICLE: THE NEW SABC – A TRUE PUBLIC BROADCASTER
In March 2017, the President appointed five individuals to the Interim Board of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). These individuals were appointed following the implementation of the recommendations of Parliament’s ad hoc committee inquiry into the SABC. The Interim Board was appointed to guide the Broadcaster to calmer waters over a transitionary period fraught with many changes. One of the recommendations of the ad hoc committee was the establishment of a permanent Board. On 5 September, the Interim Board finalised 12 names for the permanent Board. After an open and public nomination process, followed by a similarly transparent interview process by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications, these names have been published. The names await confirmation by the President.
ARTICLE: WHAT THE MARIKANA INFORMAL SETTLEMENT JUDGMENT TEACHES
Urban migration is a global phenomenon, to which South Africa is not immune. Thousands of South Africans move to urban areas every year in search of better opportunities including better remuneration, education, work opportunities and improved services. Many such South Africans find themselves, as the occupants of the Marikana informal settlement near Cape Town did, precariously settled on the margins of the city and facing a certain future homelessness.
All of the above issues came to the fore recently, in three related instances, which due to the proximity of the occupied land in question, the Western Cape High Court (the Court) viewed as a single case. The facts briefly are that land belonging to Mrs Fischer and two private companies came to be unlawfully occupied by 60 000 individuals. Despite early attempts in 2013 to evict the unlawful occupants, the number of unlawful occupants had exponentially grown to 60 000 by the time the Applicants approached the Court.
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