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.
The State proved that Thomson corruptly offered (the offer having been communicated to Shaik)
to give a benefit
which was not legally due
to a person, being Zuma,
who had been charged with duties, being the duties set out in s 96(2) of the Constitution
by virtue of the holding of the office of Deputy President of the RSA
with the intention to influence him
to commit or to do an act in relation to such duty. – SCA judgment in S v Shaik