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
Western Cape High Court Judge Dennis Davis says the JSC’s recently-published criteria for the appointment of judges are ‘simply not good enough’. Business Day notes the criteria were applied for the first time earlier this month during interviews by the JSC. Davis, speaking at a debate organised by the Constitutional Court Clerks Alumni Association last night, said some of the latest appointments raised ‘troubling questions’, such as whether the JSC was looking for more deference to the government from SA’s judges. He reportedly said it was also essential that the public is informed how the criteria are being implemented. ‘Simply putting those (criteria) out there, in the incoherent way that they have, is simply not good enough.
