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 party has a responsibility to ensure that, in the process of seeking to transform both the state and society, the legitimacy of the state is not compromised. Whereas the party, through its government, exercises political authority over the State, the separation between the Party and the State is imperative. Given the character and nature of the ANC, contestation to influence and control the State is an ongoing struggle, whose outcome will partly be determined by the balance of forces, as well as the imperatives of what type of society and State, the ANC seeks to build. The ANC’s approach and orientation on the question of State Power and its use is well documented. The Strategy and Tactics document of the ANC, as adopted at the ANC’s 52nd National Conference held in Polokwane, is clear on what must be done. The challenge lies in our day to day experiences, wherein the ANC, its Alliance partners and its functionaries in and out of government, adopt different and at times conflicting postures towards the State and its Organs. The ANC fully embraces the doctrine of Separation of Powers as articulated in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. – ANC Gauteng discussion document
