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
Perhaps one could also assume that the debate on affirmative action and employment equity inside the DA has now been resolved. When a black politician from outside the DA is promoted over the heads of the party’s leader, the party chairman and the parliamentary leader, we are witnessing the application of affirmative action with a vengeance. What recommends Ms Ramphele above all else is her contribution to the liberation struggle. With the exception of Joe Seremane, none of the DA’s long-standing black members made any such contribution. – Pallo Jordan in Business Day
