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
Justice Motata steps aside
I have new respect for Transvaal Judge President, Bernard Ngoepe, after he took swift action to minimize the damage to the bench caused by the drunken driving charges against Justice Nkola Motata.
He immediately met with the wayward judge and instructed him to go on a leave of absence until after the completion of his trial. He also indicated that this is not necessarily the end of the matter and that the situation would be “looked at again” after the completion of the trial.
His action sends a signal that the issue is indeed serious and that Justice Motata has a case to answer. This contrasts sharply with the way in which the JSC dealt with the Hlope matter.
The big test will of course come when/if Justice Motata is convicted on the drunken driving charge. If convicted, he will not only be sertified as a drunk driver but also, more damaging to my mind, as a liar and a bully.
To the Sunday Times he claimed that he was not drunk and only had tea with a colleague. Like Watergate, I think the cover-up would be more damaging to his credibility than the crime. If convicted he should therefore do the decent thing and resign.
If he does not resign, Justice Ngoepe should whisper in his ear to persuade him to do the right thing – perhaps by threatening impeachment if he does not do the honourable thing.
I suppose the big test for the Judge President will come if that scenario plays out. Will he have the backbone to get rid of a judge when a certain click in the Judicial Services Commission may frown upon it? Does he perhaps have ambitions to sit in the Constitutional Court?
If Justice Motata is convicted and no action is taken against him it will be a dark day for the judiciary in South Africa indeed.
