CONSTITUTIONAL COMMENTARY AND EVENTS
ARTICLES AND STATEMENTS
A VISIT TO THE CAPE TOWN SOCIETY FOR THE BLIND – BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS FOR THE BLIND
On 2 April 2025, a FW de Klerk Foundation delegation visited The Cape Town Society for the Blind’s campus to learn more about how they empower and support the visually impaired.
WHAT WOULD A YOUTH-FOCUSED BUDGET REALLY LOOK LIKE?
Ismail Joosub considers the third rendition of the budget speech and what it would look like if it did not skirt around our most urgent long-term challenge: The economic and social exclusion of young people.
RACE CLASSIFICATIONS WON’T FIX THE INJUSTICES OF THE PAST, DE KLERK FOUNDATION TELLS RAMAPHOSA
Christo van der Rheede responds to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent comments on race classification that have sparked a heated debate about South Africa’s journey towards equality.
PODCASTS
SUBMISSIONS
ARTICLE: DID THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY ON STATE CAPTURE UNINTENTIONALLY EXTEND JACOB ZUMA’S POLITICAL SHELF LIFE?
The previous Public Protector’s report on state capture has been released and the political impact of the report and its findings have already been felt, and will be for some time. What happens after the Commission of Inquiry (the Commission) publishes its report, findings and recommendations? What influence will these have on the Zuma presidency and his successors?
The recommendation of the Public Protector is that the President appoints a Commission of Inquiry within 30 days. This must therefore take place by 2 December. For this to happen the President requires the name of the designated Chairman very soon – as identified by Chief Justice Mogoeng. The Commission has 180 days to complete its work.
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.
ARTICLE: ‘DECOLONISING’ OUR CAMPUSES AND BURNING THE MEMORIES OF THE PAST
In the 10th Annual Helen Joseph Lecture last month, Prof Njabulo Ndebele, the Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, mused about the burning earlier this year by UCT Rhodes-Must-Fall activists of portraits and commemorative objects symbolising the university’s “colonial” past. One of the objects was a plaque honouring Jan Christian Smuts. At first, Ndebele was shocked by this “burning of memory”.
However, after he had ‘mediated’ his thoughts, he saw the incident in a different light. It represented instead a clash between two historic periods – on the one hand “the legacy of the history of conquest” represented by Smuts – and on the other “the nascent moments” of the history that had begun in 1994.
SPEECHES
EVENTS
DANIELA ELLERBECK’S CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS AND LINGUISTIC RIGHTS REPORT CARD LAUNCH ADDRESS
Daniela Ellerbeck’s address at the FW de Klerk Foundation’s Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Rights Report Card.
CHRISTO VAN DER RHEEDE’S CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS AND LINGUISTIC RIGHTS REPORT CARD LAUNCH CONCLUDING ADDRESS
Christo van der Rheede’s concluding address at the FW de Klerk Foundation’s Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Rights Report Card.
CHRISTO VAN DER RHEEDE’S CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS AND LINGUISTIC RIGHTS REPORT CARD LAUNCH WELCOME ADDRESS
Christo van der Rheede’s address at the FW de Klerk Foundation’s Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Rights Report Card.
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