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
Eastern Cape rural schools visit
I am in Mthatha with a delegation led by Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, visiting various rural schools to draw attention to the inequalities in our education system and highlight the need for the formulation of detailed and precise norms and standards setting out, at the very least, the minimum conditions in which children will be able to learn with dignity.
I will write a more reflective piece when I get time. Meanwhile I post a few pictures taken yesterday.
At Putuma Junior Secondary School more than hundred children cram into one classroom. The school is known for its choir which won the national championship last year. This is a picture of one children in grade 9.
At Sea View Secondary School only 13% of matrics passed last year. These unfinished classrooms are being built by the community. Students waiting for fellow class mates to complete their lesson in the classroom they share, hang out in these unfinished classrooms.
