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
Newsflash: Edwin Cameron appointed to the Constitutional Court
I just received the following message from the Treatment Action Campaign:
The Treatment Action Campaign congratulates Justice Edwin Cameron on his appointment to the Constitutional Court.
Justice Edwin Cameron has been appointed to the Constitutional Court of South Africa by President Kgalema Mothlanthe. Edwin Cameron has been described as the best legal mind of his generation. His career as an anti-apartheid lawyer opposed forced removals, military conscription, unfair labour practices and censorship. Cameron was one of the first judges appointed by President Nelson Mandela and has built a substantive jurisprudence on equality, rights to social security, freedom of expression and the rights of rape survivors.
Justice Edwin Cameron is a gay man who lives openly with HIV/AIDS. His appointment to the highest court in our country is an affirmation of the Bill of Rights, the rule of law and non-racialism.
Justice Cameron replaces Justice Tholekile Madala whose term ended this year and has retired.
A good appointment. Four appointments to go. Thabo Mbeki must not be happy because Justice Cameron has been one of the first to speak out forcefully and bravely against his views on HIV/AIDS. And our first opennly gay man on the highest court. What a nice Christmas present.
