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
Mbeki and the world cup victory
Was I being too sensitive and cynical for noticing how some of the members of the England Rugby team seemed to walk right past President Thabo Mbeki during the handing out of the medals?
I almost felt sorry for him: there he was, short and wooden – looking as comfortable as Al Gore during a Presidential debate – and, quite frankly, a bit disheveled in his Springbok outfit. I suppose he was sadly trying (unsuccessfully) to emulate Madiba at the 1995 World Cup, standing next to Nicholas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown and looking decidedly uncomfortable.
Then some of the England players just walked right past him, with him, grabbing on to their sleeves to get the chance to congratulate them on losing.
It seems to me like a textbook display of the subliminal racism that Mbeki himself talks about so often and get so upset and obsessed with. It is as if the England players, after shaking hands with the French President and their own Prime Minister, did not even see our President and for what reason? Surely not only because he was not dressed in a suit. Could it be that they thought this little man was not important because he was black?
In any case, I found it sad. Sadder still was the President’s body language throughout the celebrations. Even when he was lifted shoulder high and he hoisted the world cup he did not look very comfortable. Decidedly out of his element.
But surely the South African victory must boost the President’s chances of being re-elected President of the ANC. The Springbok victory has erased some of the doom and gloom that was hanging over South Africa and, for the time being at least, is making us all a little bit optimistic.
This could change the mood of some delegates going to Limpopo and who knows, might influence the election. How ironic it would be if the African Nationalist’s chances of re-election is boosted by the winning of the world cup by a team who is decidedly pale in complexion.
