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
And as with the ANC’s failed attempts to censor the media, Zuma again helps the ruling party bear a scary resemblance to the National Party under apartheid. They, too, justified their actions under the banner of being “God’s chosen people”. The fall from revolutionary party to oppressor mimicry is almost textbook Orwell. The last time I checked I chose to live in a democracy — not a theocracy. That implies a division between church and state, and one that I fully support as a Christian. Yes, leaders are influenced by their beliefs and their ideologies, but the politician’s lectern is not a pulpit and government is not the place to preach. – Verashni Pillay on President Zuma’s latest statements on heaven and the ANC
