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
On impeachment and accountability
Impeachment processes are the means through which accountability and fidelity to the rule of law can be attained. To leave such processes suspended in mid-air, as it were, for as long as it would take for the matter to be heard in the ordinary course does not accord with the public interest in the finalisation of the important issues raised in this matter. After all, Chapter 9 institution office-bearers perform an important role in upholding a constitutional democracy, and the determination of the validity of the rules that hold these office-bearers to account cannot be thwarted or subjected to delays.
