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
Odidi against xenophobia and homophobia
This video aims to shock us into taking responsibility for Hate Crime; specifically anti-lesbian and xenophobic hate crimes. It features my friend Odidi Mfenyana, singing Billy Holiday’s siren protest song Strange Fruit. Although the song originally referred to the grotesque lynching of blacks in the United States, this version aims to prevent us becoming habituated and de-sensitized to the occurrence of violent hate crimes in South Africa. “Strange Fruit” is intended to cause a measure of discomfort and to call us to action.
