In theory, when a citizen votes for a parliamentary representative, that representative is meant to embody the will of the person who voted for him or her. Phakama Shili, advocacy officer at Swaziland’s Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Swaziland), writes a weekly column for the Swazi Observer. The column, ‘Constitutionally Speaking’, considers human rights and the quest for democracy in…
"Essentially all laws that hamper the enjoyment of fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution should be abolished or amended to comply with the supreme law of the land." Phakama Shili, advocacy officer at Swaziland’s Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Swaziland), writes a weekly column for daily newspaper Swazi Observer. The column, 'Constitutionally Speaking', considers human rights and…
As we celebrate Freedom Month in South Africa, we celebrate our liberation from the yoke of apartheid and colonialism, and we celebrate our Constitution. As a nation, united in our diversity, we must cherish our non-racial, non-sexist multi-party system of governance under the rule of law. It is a system which is founded on ensuring accountability, responsiveness and openness so that human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms are nurtured and flourish. These values are all neatly set out in the first section of the first chapter of the Constitution
Corruption has become so acute in South Africa that children in the Eastern Cape and other impoverished areas are starving to death – while a third of the (still edible and nutritious) food produced in South Africa ends up in landfills.