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
Invitation to inaugural Lecture of Pierre de Vos
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The Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Max Price Professor Pierre De Vos Department of Public Law Faculty of Law Wednesday, 14 September 2011 at 17h30 Lecture Theatre 1, Kramer Law Building University of Cape Town Admission: Free Guests to be seated by 17h15 |
| Pierre de Vos was appointed as the Claude Leon Foundation Chair in Constitutional Governance in the Public Law Department at the Law Faculty of the University of Cape Town in July 2009. His tasks include the teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Constitutional Law and engagement in public activities to promote respect for the Constitution of South Africa. He has obtained a BComm (Law); LLB and LLM (cum laude), all from the University of Stellenbosch; a LLM from the University of Columbia, New York; and an LLD from the University of the Western Cape.
He taught at the University of the Western Cape for over 15 years where he was first appointed as a lecturer in 1993 before being promoted to Professor in 2003. He has published widely on an array of topics dealing, broadly, with the use of law in promoting social justice. His research focuses specifically on the realisation of social and economic rights – including the right to housing and health care – and the prohibition on unfair discrimination – especially as it relates to discrimination against gay men, lesbians and people living with HIV/AIDS. In 2008 he became the first legal academic in South Africa to write a regular Blog, entitled Constitutionally Speaking. Today the Blog is widely read and quoted, as is his commentary provided to electronic and print media in South Africa and abroad. For the past 5 years he has served as the Chairperson of the Board of the Aids Legal Network, an NGO promoting a human rights approach to HIV/AIDS prevention, combatting discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS, and government policies regarding HIV/AIDS treatment. He is also a Board member of the Triangle Project and the Ubuntu Development Forum. In 1994 he published a novel – in Afrikaans – entitled “Slegs Blankes/Whites Only”. The novel told the story of a young Afrikaans man coming to terms with the fact that his father was a member of an apartheid hit squad, and with the fact of his own sexuality.
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RSVP by 7 September 2011 to:
Michelle Moses
University of Cape Town
Communication & Marketing Department
La Grotta, Glendarrach Road
Rondebosch. 7701
Tel: 021 650 4870
Fax: 021 650 5628
Email: michelle.moses@uct.ac.z
