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
Medical Miracles (IV)
It has now been 205 days since Schabir Shaik was released on medical parole because he was allegedly “in the final phase of a terminal disease or condition” and was sent home in order “to die a consolatory and dignified death”. (These are nor my words, but the words used in section 79 of the Correctional Services Act.)
Of course, we know that an individual can only be released in terms of section 79 after a medical practitioner treating the criminal had indeed diagnosed that criminal as being in the final stages of a terminal illness. We have also known for a long time that Shaik’s doctors never diagnosed him as being in the final stages of a terminal illness and that he was therefore released unlawfully.
After 205 days as a free man, Shaik remains very much alive. This is no surprise as he never was at deaths door when he was released. Despite the clear evidence that the release was unlawful, the Minister has steadfastly refused to refer the case the the Parole Appeals Board as he was obliged to do, claiming there was no evidence of wrongdoing. (Like the apartheid government who always claimed there was no evidence that the Police tortured and killed the opponents of apartheid, our Minister refuses to see what is before his very own eyes.)
The miracle here is of course not really a medical one at all. The miracle is that Shaik is getting away with this because he once upon a time paid bribes worth millions of Rands to our President, something our society does not seem to care about too much. Who cares that some animals are more equal than others? Who cares that poor, black criminals languish in jail and die there while well connected people like Shaik escape their punishment. Who cares about the principle of equality before the law. After all, there was no equality before the law during the apartheid era, so why should there now be such a thing?
Let us forgive and forget, I say! After all, this is the kind of thing the apartheid government did, so why should we be any better than they were. We have learnt well from our oppressors.
