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
Zimabwe: where even the SABC is “subversive”
More proof that anything remotely resembling a free and fair election in Zimbabwe is not possible. From the This is Zimbabwe website:
The Zimbabwean government has announced the beginning of yet another operation designed to oppress the people of Zimbabwe.
Under Operation Dzikisai Madhishi (Operation pull down your satellite dish) the regime is forcing Zimbabweans to pull down their home satellite dishes through which the majority of Zimbabweans have been able to access eTV, SABC, Botswana Television as well some DSTV channels. The coverage of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) is generally poor outside of the main urban areas. The overwhelming propaganda content of this state channel has seen the proliferation of private satellite dishes in recent years.
This operation is a concerted effort by the regime to close all spaces through which information can be disseminated, with the objective of stealing the election.
Zimbabwe has descended into unparalleled levels of media censorship. The regime is determined to cut off Zimbabweans from the rest of the world by ensuring that they are unable to receive news from outside Zimbabwe about what is happening in their own country.
