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
Quote
No one cares about issues of diversity facing black universities. No one cares what happens there and whether or not the throughput rates are increasing, whether or not targets are being met to produce qualified and competent doctors, engineers, scientists, nurses, and the other urgent skills required by our economy. No one asks whether or not the racial balance at the black universities has been met, or whether or not numeracy or academic levels have improved. Why is this debate not in the public realm? Unlike black universities, formerly white universities are under constant scrutiny for racial transformation . Many former white universities with black vice-chancellors have become no-go areas, the fiefdoms of those who stifle free debate and tyrannise those academics who dare to ask questions. Countless disciplinary procedures have been instituted against those who will not “toe the line” , at great legal cost to universities who need those monies for academic programmes. – Rhoda Kadalie in Business Day
