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.
It has been quite a hectic few weeks on the legal and political scene and some days I hardly had time to digest it all. I have not had time to thank all the commentators on this Blog who have kept up quite a lively, sometimes very robust and often informative and interesting debate going here. So, thanks! You keep me on my toes and make me think and reflect about my own views. Now if we can only get Mr Malema to reflect on his.
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