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
1st Human Rights Indaba at North West University
1
st Human Rights Indaba
The Role of Local Government and the Lower Courts in Realising Socio-Economic
Rights in the North-West, Northern Cape and Free State Provinces
PROGRAMME 29 October 2010
Feather Hill Spa, Potchefstroom
08:00 – 08:30 Registration
08:30 – 08:45 Welcoming of participants on behalf of the North-West University and the Konrad-
Adenauer-Foundation
Dr Werner Böhler (KAF), Prof Madoda Zibi (NWU) and Prof Francois Venter (Faculty of Law,
NWU)
Session 1
Chair: Prof David Bilchitz (Director: SAIFAC and Professor of Law, UJ)
08:45 – 09:15
Positive Obligations Arising from Socio-Economic Rights: Reflections on the Role of
Local Government and the Lower Courts
Justice Pius Langa
(Former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court)
09:15 – 09:30
09:30 – 09:45
09:45 – 10:30
Judge Jody Kollapan
(Acting Judge, North Gauteng High Court)
Prof Lourens du Plessis
Discussion
(Professor of Law, US)
10:30 – 10:45
Coffee and Tea break
Session 2
Chair:
Commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission)
Prof Leon Wessels (Honorary Professor, Faculty of Law, NWU and Former
Socio-Economic Rights in the South African Constitution and the Notion of
‘Developmental Local Government’:
10:45 – 11:15 Prof Linda Stewart
Connections and Challenges(Professor of Law, NWU)
11:15 – 11:45 Prof Bernard Bekink
(Professor of Law, UP)
11:45 – 12:15
12:15 – 12:45
12:45 – 13:00
13:00 – 14:00
Ms Annette May
(Researcher: Community Law Centre, UWC)
Mr Marece Wenhold & Mr Paul van Hoof
Discussion
(IDASA)
Lunch Break
Session 3
Chair: Prof Francois Venter (NWU, South Africa)
The Role of the Lower Courts in Promoting and Protecting the Socio-Economic
Rights of Local Communities
14:00 – 14:30 Dr Danny Titus
and Executive Director: Culture
(Part-time Commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission– ATKV)
14:30 – 15:00 Ms Jakkie Wessels
(Regional Court President: Limpopo, Department of Justice)
15:00 – 15:30 Mr Kemi Behari
(Magistrate of the Regional Court, Department of Justice)
15:30 – 16:00
Discussion
16:00
Wrap-up
(Prof Oladejo Olowu, NWU, South Africa)
Closure and Coffee on the Run
The NWU Faculty of Law and the
Konrad Adenauer Foundation are bound
by section 16 of the Constitution of the
Republic of South Africa, 1996 to allow freedom of expression. However, opinions, views and conclusions
expressed at the Colloquium are those of the presenters and/or participants and not necessarily those of
the organising institutions.
Please fax the attached registration form not later than
4 October 2010
to:
Mrs Rieëtte Venter
Fax: 018 293 5328 OR E-mail:
rieette.venter@nwu.ac.zaNo registration fees are payable
