Quote of the week
Universal adult suffrage on a common voters roll is one of the foundational values of our entire constitutional order. The achievement of the franchise has historically been important both for the acquisition of the rights of full and effective citizenship by all South Africans regardless of race, and for the accomplishment of an all-embracing nationhood. The universality of the franchise is important not only for nationhood and democracy. The vote of each and every citizen is a badge of dignity and of personhood. Quite literally, it says that everybody counts. In a country of great disparities of wealth and power it declares that whoever we are, whether rich or poor, exalted or disgraced, we all belong to the same democratic South African nation; that our destinies are intertwined in a single interactive polity.
August and Another v Electoral Commission and Others (CCT8/99) [1999] ZACC 3
The enormity of what the DA seeks to achieve in this application, particularly the injustice and unfairness to Mr Zuma, should not be overlooked. He has been investigated with all his documents, bank accounts and private conduct being exposed to scrutiny since 2001, a well-considered NPA decision not to prosecute him made in 2003, a decision to prosecute him taken in 2005 which came to naught when the case was struck from the roll when the Prosecution in August 2006 unsuccessfully sought a postponement, a December 2007 decision to prosecute him followed by a March 2009 decision not to continue with such prosecution in respect of essentially the same core charges and the same core evidence. The Applicant now seeks to review the 2009 decision so that another decision must be taken to prosecute Mr Zuma in 2010 and some future date. – Michael Hulley, in his replying affidavit to the DA review application
