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
In the course of his gluttonous plundering, “the movement” and/or individuals in “the movement” gained from these sordid dealings. Through all this, he was protected, like many other businessmen of his bent. The shadowy Majali was representative of a network of proxy businessmen and entities that serve ruling-party heavyweights in various sectors of the economy. Be they Chancellor House, Imvume or a host of smaller, but well-connected businesses at provincial and local levels, these proxies give the lie to the ruling party’s pronouncements on a tough anti-corruption stance. Unscrupulous businessmen and their political sponsors have been able to use the name of the party to strong-arm parastatals and government departments into giving them tenders. This network lies at the heart of the institutionalisation of corruption in our country. Sandi Majali has taken many dark secrets to the grave with him. What he did leave behind was a legacy of crookedness that goes deep into the heart of the ruling party, the state and the society. – Mondli Makhanya on Sandi Majali
