Date: 22/01/2004
Source: Foundation for Human Rights
Title: Maduna: Address at Conference on Public Interest Law
KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY DR PENUELL MADUNA, (MP) MINISTER FOR JUSTICE AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AT THE OPENING OF THE CONFERENCE ON PUBLIC INTEREST LAW, Durban, South Africa, 22 January 2004
Madame Chairperson, honourable guests, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to address you here tonight at the opening of this conference on Public Interest Law - a focus on the last ten years of South Africa's democracy. Before I do so, however, let me first thank the Human Rights Commission and the Foundation for Human Rights, which in collaboration with the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, the Legal Resources Centre, the National Association of Democratic Lawyers, the Black Lawyers Association and Lawyers for Human Rights for having organised this conference and invited me to participate in your deliberations.
The conference is being held at an auspicious moment in the history of our country. As we all know, we are about to celebrate ten years of our hard-won democracy - ten years of freedom. This year represents the end of the first decade since the majority of our people gained the franchise and started participating meaningfully, and rightfully so, in the public affairs of our country. All of us have fond memories of 27 April 1994 when our people - black and white, male and female, young and old - stood together in long winding queues to cast their votes in free and fair elections for the first time as citizens of one united Republic of South Africa. While we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the emancipation of the victims of apartheid and white minority rule, it behoves us as a people to take stock of what has since been done and achieved as well ponder over the challenges that face us as we enter the second decade.
The erstwhile oppressed people of South Africa, with the support of democrats the world over, demanded, campaigned, struggled and fought for, and ultimately obtained full democracy, as a result of which we were able to give ourselves a very progressive Constitution, with an entrenched and comprehensive Bill of Rights, a cornerstone of our democracy. Today, the Republic of South Africa is one sovereign democratic state founded on the values of human dignity, equality, non-racialism, non-sexism, the supremacy of the Constitution, the rule of law, universal suffrage and a multi-party system of democratic government to ensure accountability, transparency and responsiveness.
We have lived for ten years in a united country shorn of the truncated apartheid state and its ten Bantustan creations. We have enjoyed ten full years of a polity that is predicated upon a new grundnorm, constitutionalism, which has replaced the distorted version of parliamentary sovereignty, in terms of which Parliament could make and did make any law it fancied affecting the life and property of anyone who fell under the sway of the apartheid state without the courts being able to help. Our courts, which are truly independent and subject only to the Constitution and the law, which they must apply impartially and without fear, favour or prejudice, have for the past ten years enjoyed and exercised the awesome power of judicial review.
The gaining by the majority of our citizenry of the right to the franchise or the rights to vote and to be voted for opened all avenues that were closed to us by virtue of our race and colour. Democracy has enabled us to begin eradicating poverty, providing education, health care, housing, social security, safe public transport and a clean environment to all and making South Africa safer and more secure within our constitutional framework.
Democracy has also enabled us to begin taking care of the aged and protecting vulnerable groups such as women and children and people with disabilities on a non-racial basis. It has, in effect, enabled us to begin taking into account the needs of society as a whole and particularly the rights of vulnerable persons and groups in society.
In line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that states that everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to the realisation, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organisation and resources of each state, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality, provision is made in our Bill of Rights for a whole range of socio-economic rights that our people have since begun to enjoy.
Our Constitution, regarded as being one of the most progressive in the world, provides us with the foundation on which to thoroughly transform South African society, redress past imbalances and provide for the needs of all our people. Obviously, this has to be done within the context of our limited resources and the immense task involved in transformation, reconstruction and development.
One of the most important institutions in South Africa today is our Constitutional Court. That Court is guiding the development of our constitutional jurisprudence, pronouncing on matters of fundamental public importance and ensuring that full effect is given to the letter and spirit of the Bill of Rights.
We also have a vibrant Parliament as well as nine provincial legislatures, all of which actively encourage participation by organs of civil society and which jealously guard and assert their independence. Even though, at times, some of the participants may be tempted, the democratic system ensures that, in the final analysis, reason prevails in these institutions where issues of public importance are debated transparently.
The State has established various bodies to support and strengthen our democracy in accordance with our Constitution. These are the Human Rights Commission; the Public Protector; the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities; the Commission for Gender Equality; the Auditor-General; and the Electoral Commission. These institutions are independent and subject only to the Constitution and the law. They are impartial and exercise their powers and perform their functions without fear, favour or prejudice.
They must be assisted by other organs of state to ensure their independence, impartiality, dignity and effectiveness. Parliament exercises oversight functions in respect of the work of these institutions, all of which must report to it once a year.
During the past ten years, we have built 1,8 million houses, provided clean running water to millions of people, speeded up land reform and land redistribution, built hundreds of schools and thousands of classrooms, expanded basic health care facilities and services, extended social welfare benefits to all on a non-racial basis, are progressively increasing child care grants to include children up to fourteen years of age, are implementing a roll-out of anti-retroviral medication to those who need it, connected millions of households to electricity and telephones and have generally taken steps to provide for the poor and the needy.
Today all of us have and enjoy untrammelled freedom of movement in our country as well as the right to visit any part of the world where we are welcome. The pass laws are gone! There is no Bantu education any longer; all schools and tertiary institutions are open to all our children on a non-racial basis! Our children are born in any hospital or clinic and when we die we are not buried in graveyards reserved for Bantus. The public toilet facilities in our towns and cities are open to all on a non-racial basis. We can now swim anywhere. Durban and other cities and towns no longer have any beaches designated for particular races and we will never suffer the fate of Reverend Allan Hendricks!
Much, much more still has to be done, of course.
Millions of our people are without work and millions of them live in conditions of abject poverty and squalor. Many people still die in detention. The justice system, whilst improving steadily, needs to improve even more. We often receive reports about sick people being turned away from hospitals, about aged persons and children not receiving their welfare benefits and school children being turned away from schools because they cannot pay their school fees. Corruption is a major issue and must be eradicated.
It is this area, the area of delivery and the protection of rights that civil society has such an important role to play. Lobby groups raise their concerns and champion the cause of their constituents. Public interest law firms take up the legal issues, which confront particularly the poor and the dispossessed, and ensure that resources are allocated equitably to those who need it.
The context in which we operate as a state is characterised by, inter alia, mass poverty, squalor, ignorance and disease afflicting more than two-thirds of the world's six billion people, globalisation and everything it brings in its train, the predominance of finance capital which moves faster than the speed of sound, knows and respects no sovereignty, no laws and no boundaries, as well as a single-super power world dominated by the United States.
Constant calls are being made from many quarters for the market to take over a lot of what have till fairly recently have been part of the traditional roles of government, for government's role to be limited to regulation and for the market to provide the social benefits traditionally provided by the state. Increasingly, the market is providing education, including tertiary education, health care, safety and security, amongst other things, to those who can afford the costs involved. The general notion in such libertarian circles appears to be that all state-owned entities must be privatised, as the market is perceived as being better at providing even essential services.
We also have the problem of the paucity of resources. The State does not have an abundance of resources that it can freely use to expeditiously make the lives of all our people better. It will take a lot of time, resources, energy and dedication to completely undo the damage occasioned us by colonialism and its apartheid offshoot.
Be that as it may, we already have much cause for celebration and much to be thankful for. However, we need to be vigilant. Democracy can only be sustained by a people committed to it and to making it work. We live in the post-9/11 world with all sorts of implications for democratic states the world over. We are part of a global village. Whatever happens anywhere in the world affects us in one-way or another.
Over the course of the next few days, you will debate issues relating to South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy, including the transformation of the judiciary, land reform and redistribution, women's rights, the role of civil society and public interest law, the impact of HIV/AIDS and various issues arising out of 9/11, globalisation and anti-terrorism. These are some of the issues that are facing not only South Africa, but the whole world.
As we celebrate ten years of independence and democracy, we should dispassionately reflect on the role of our state institutions in giving full expression to the Bill of Rights, as well as on the crucial role played by organs of civil society in defending and protecting those rights. Let us all also examine what we need to do in an international context to ensure that the future is guaranteed for all of the world's people. Our own future depends on this as well.
I wish you a very successful conference.
Thank you.
Issued by: Oryx Media Productions on behalf of the Foundation for Human Rights, 22 January 2004
Source: SAPA
Source: Foundation for Human Rights
Title: Maduna: Address at Conference on Public Interest Law
KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY DR PENUELL MADUNA, (MP) MINISTER FOR JUSTICE AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AT THE OPENING OF THE CONFERENCE ON PUBLIC INTEREST LAW, Durban, South Africa, 22 January 2004
Madame Chairperson, honourable guests, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to address you here tonight at the opening of this conference on Public Interest Law - a focus on the last ten years of South Africa's democracy. Before I do so, however, let me first thank the Human Rights Commission and the Foundation for Human Rights, which in collaboration with the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, the Legal Resources Centre, the National Association of Democratic Lawyers, the Black Lawyers Association and Lawyers for Human Rights for having organised this conference and invited me to participate in your deliberations.
The conference is being held at an auspicious moment in the history of our country. As we all know, we are about to celebrate ten years of our hard-won democracy - ten years of freedom. This year represents the end of the first decade since the majority of our people gained the franchise and started participating meaningfully, and rightfully so, in the public affairs of our country. All of us have fond memories of 27 April 1994 when our people - black and white, male and female, young and old - stood together in long winding queues to cast their votes in free and fair elections for the first time as citizens of one united Republic of South Africa. While we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the emancipation of the victims of apartheid and white minority rule, it behoves us as a people to take stock of what has since been done and achieved as well ponder over the challenges that face us as we enter the second decade.
The erstwhile oppressed people of South Africa, with the support of democrats the world over, demanded, campaigned, struggled and fought for, and ultimately obtained full democracy, as a result of which we were able to give ourselves a very progressive Constitution, with an entrenched and comprehensive Bill of Rights, a cornerstone of our democracy. Today, the Republic of South Africa is one sovereign democratic state founded on the values of human dignity, equality, non-racialism, non-sexism, the supremacy of the Constitution, the rule of law, universal suffrage and a multi-party system of democratic government to ensure accountability, transparency and responsiveness.
We have lived for ten years in a united country shorn of the truncated apartheid state and its ten Bantustan creations. We have enjoyed ten full years of a polity that is predicated upon a new grundnorm, constitutionalism, which has replaced the distorted version of parliamentary sovereignty, in terms of which Parliament could make and did make any law it fancied affecting the life and property of anyone who fell under the sway of the apartheid state without the courts being able to help. Our courts, which are truly independent and subject only to the Constitution and the law, which they must apply impartially and without fear, favour or prejudice, have for the past ten years enjoyed and exercised the awesome power of judicial review.
The gaining by the majority of our citizenry of the right to the franchise or the rights to vote and to be voted for opened all avenues that were closed to us by virtue of our race and colour. Democracy has enabled us to begin eradicating poverty, providing education, health care, housing, social security, safe public transport and a clean environment to all and making South Africa safer and more secure within our constitutional framework.
Democracy has also enabled us to begin taking care of the aged and protecting vulnerable groups such as women and children and people with disabilities on a non-racial basis. It has, in effect, enabled us to begin taking into account the needs of society as a whole and particularly the rights of vulnerable persons and groups in society.
In line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that states that everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to the realisation, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organisation and resources of each state, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality, provision is made in our Bill of Rights for a whole range of socio-economic rights that our people have since begun to enjoy.
Our Constitution, regarded as being one of the most progressive in the world, provides us with the foundation on which to thoroughly transform South African society, redress past imbalances and provide for the needs of all our people. Obviously, this has to be done within the context of our limited resources and the immense task involved in transformation, reconstruction and development.
One of the most important institutions in South Africa today is our Constitutional Court. That Court is guiding the development of our constitutional jurisprudence, pronouncing on matters of fundamental public importance and ensuring that full effect is given to the letter and spirit of the Bill of Rights.
We also have a vibrant Parliament as well as nine provincial legislatures, all of which actively encourage participation by organs of civil society and which jealously guard and assert their independence. Even though, at times, some of the participants may be tempted, the democratic system ensures that, in the final analysis, reason prevails in these institutions where issues of public importance are debated transparently.
The State has established various bodies to support and strengthen our democracy in accordance with our Constitution. These are the Human Rights Commission; the Public Protector; the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities; the Commission for Gender Equality; the Auditor-General; and the Electoral Commission. These institutions are independent and subject only to the Constitution and the law. They are impartial and exercise their powers and perform their functions without fear, favour or prejudice.
They must be assisted by other organs of state to ensure their independence, impartiality, dignity and effectiveness. Parliament exercises oversight functions in respect of the work of these institutions, all of which must report to it once a year.
During the past ten years, we have built 1,8 million houses, provided clean running water to millions of people, speeded up land reform and land redistribution, built hundreds of schools and thousands of classrooms, expanded basic health care facilities and services, extended social welfare benefits to all on a non-racial basis, are progressively increasing child care grants to include children up to fourteen years of age, are implementing a roll-out of anti-retroviral medication to those who need it, connected millions of households to electricity and telephones and have generally taken steps to provide for the poor and the needy.
Today all of us have and enjoy untrammelled freedom of movement in our country as well as the right to visit any part of the world where we are welcome. The pass laws are gone! There is no Bantu education any longer; all schools and tertiary institutions are open to all our children on a non-racial basis! Our children are born in any hospital or clinic and when we die we are not buried in graveyards reserved for Bantus. The public toilet facilities in our towns and cities are open to all on a non-racial basis. We can now swim anywhere. Durban and other cities and towns no longer have any beaches designated for particular races and we will never suffer the fate of Reverend Allan Hendricks!
Much, much more still has to be done, of course.
Millions of our people are without work and millions of them live in conditions of abject poverty and squalor. Many people still die in detention. The justice system, whilst improving steadily, needs to improve even more. We often receive reports about sick people being turned away from hospitals, about aged persons and children not receiving their welfare benefits and school children being turned away from schools because they cannot pay their school fees. Corruption is a major issue and must be eradicated.
It is this area, the area of delivery and the protection of rights that civil society has such an important role to play. Lobby groups raise their concerns and champion the cause of their constituents. Public interest law firms take up the legal issues, which confront particularly the poor and the dispossessed, and ensure that resources are allocated equitably to those who need it.
The context in which we operate as a state is characterised by, inter alia, mass poverty, squalor, ignorance and disease afflicting more than two-thirds of the world's six billion people, globalisation and everything it brings in its train, the predominance of finance capital which moves faster than the speed of sound, knows and respects no sovereignty, no laws and no boundaries, as well as a single-super power world dominated by the United States.
Constant calls are being made from many quarters for the market to take over a lot of what have till fairly recently have been part of the traditional roles of government, for government's role to be limited to regulation and for the market to provide the social benefits traditionally provided by the state. Increasingly, the market is providing education, including tertiary education, health care, safety and security, amongst other things, to those who can afford the costs involved. The general notion in such libertarian circles appears to be that all state-owned entities must be privatised, as the market is perceived as being better at providing even essential services.
We also have the problem of the paucity of resources. The State does not have an abundance of resources that it can freely use to expeditiously make the lives of all our people better. It will take a lot of time, resources, energy and dedication to completely undo the damage occasioned us by colonialism and its apartheid offshoot.
Be that as it may, we already have much cause for celebration and much to be thankful for. However, we need to be vigilant. Democracy can only be sustained by a people committed to it and to making it work. We live in the post-9/11 world with all sorts of implications for democratic states the world over. We are part of a global village. Whatever happens anywhere in the world affects us in one-way or another.
Over the course of the next few days, you will debate issues relating to South Africa's transition from apartheid to democracy, including the transformation of the judiciary, land reform and redistribution, women's rights, the role of civil society and public interest law, the impact of HIV/AIDS and various issues arising out of 9/11, globalisation and anti-terrorism. These are some of the issues that are facing not only South Africa, but the whole world.
As we celebrate ten years of independence and democracy, we should dispassionately reflect on the role of our state institutions in giving full expression to the Bill of Rights, as well as on the crucial role played by organs of civil society in defending and protecting those rights. Let us all also examine what we need to do in an international context to ensure that the future is guaranteed for all of the world's people. Our own future depends on this as well.
I wish you a very successful conference.
Thank you.
Issued by: Oryx Media Productions on behalf of the Foundation for Human Rights, 22 January 2004
Source: SAPA
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