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
At some stage of her career, she changed the name of a hospital against the wishes of the local community and tried to interfere in an independent inquiry. She’s been pulled out of her luxury government car and pushed into a taxi by angry protesters. Oh, and she’s also refused to follow due process with the renaming of the national capital. Her cavalcade was caught driving 140km/h in a 70km/h zone. And what was the other thing? Oh yes, she’s completely cocked up the running of the capital city, so badly, actually, that she was named the worst mayor in the country. But despite all of that, she’s now the new deputy chairwoman of the Gauteng ANC. Step aside Nomvula Mokonyane, welcome Gwen Ramokgopa. – The Daily Maverick on the election of Gwen Ramokgopa as deputy chairperson of the Gauteng ANC
