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
Do they want ministers to ride on scooters when they do their work or drive 1400 bakkies? It’s unfortunate to link these two, as if it’s for the first time to see ministers riding in these vehicles. Even during apartheid time ministers were using vehicles such as Mercs … it is a tool of our trade. – Minister of public service and administration, Richard Baloyi, responding to Cosatu’s criticism of executive excess in the face of the public servants strike
