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
First, Mr Vavi is speaking the truth — corruption is real. Anyone denying it is living in a fool’s paradise. We are producing more scandals than our soccer team can score goals. Second, Mr Vavi is articulating thoughts and fears of the dejected electorate. Our partisan and docile Parliament cannot be trusted to defend democracy. One can’t help but think that P arliament’s duty is to protect the executive. In the absence of strong opposition parties, the likes of Mr Vavi are our prophets and voices of sanity. It is absurd for elected officials to live in opulence whilst the masses are trapped in poverty. Democracy cannot benefit the few and exclude the rest. – Dr Lucas Ntyintyane in a letter in Business Day
