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The recent Constitutional Court judgment invalidating a decision by Unisa to discontinue Afrikaans as a language of learning and teaching at the institution surprised many of us. But on closer inspection, the judgment is not as impactful as it may appear. Moreover, the judgment raises important...
Former president Jacob Zuma’s trial on charges of corruption, racketeering, money laundering, fraud and breaches of the Income Tax Act finally got underway in the Pietermaritzburg High Court earlier this week when he pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the charges put to him. Arguments flighted by Zu...
South Africans go to the polls on 27 October to elect new municipal councils. This will be done in terms of a mixed electoral system that allows for the direct election of 50% of ward councillors. Will the adoption of the local government system for national and provincial elections improve the legislative performance of elected representatives in the National Assembly and provincial legislatures? Sadly, I do not believe that the introduction of this system, or other proposed amendments to the electoral system, is likely to do so. South Africa currently relies on a pure closed-list proportion...
We do not know how many LGBTQ people are violently attacked or murdered in South Africa each year in homophobic or transphobic hate crimes. The South African Police Service (SAPS) does not keep statistics on hate crimes, and even if it did, many homophobic and transphobic hate crimes would not be classified as such because of the reluctance of the authorities to acknowledge the homophobic and transphobic motivation behind many of these attacks. (Similarly, authorities seem to be reluctant to acknowledge that attacks on many foreigners are fuelled by xenophobia.) We do know that several LGBT...
I was going to write a column about Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng’s claim that he has been receiving both legal and security advice from the Lord, but quickly realised that it is a fool’s errand to try and engage in a reasoned manner with zealously and sincerely held religious beliefs — like trying to argue with a vegan about the best way to prepare ulusu (tripe). Instead, I will focus on another issue on which reasoned discussion may be possible (except perhaps with market fundamentalists), namely the likely unconstitutionality of aspects of the draft Budget. First things first. While...