Foxy logic from De Vos

In an interview on Radio 702 on February 8, the University of Cape Town’s (UCT’s) in-demand constitutional law “expert”, Prof Pierre de Vos, said there was no reason to have the army in for the state of the nation address unless there was a “credible threat” to safety and security. In his opinion, the police could manage.

In his Daily Maverick article in support of UCT vice-chancellor Max Price withdrawing editor and journalist Flemming Rose’s invitation to deliver 2016’s TB Davie lecture, De Vos wrote: “There is no tangible evidence Rose’s presence on campus would have led to the destruction of property or violent attacks on individuals, i e it would ‘provoke conflict and pose a security risk’. But it is exactly at the moment when it is difficult to stick to your principles that they become important to respect. (Most politicians don’t.)”

He also said: “I remain deeply suspicious of the actions of any university management [any government] dictating to the university community [citizens] what its members may say, write, read or listen to.” He didn’t believe Jyllands-Posten’s Prophet Mohammed cartoons were blasphemous (“I have no problem, per se, with insulting the religious beliefs [or nonbeliefs] of some”).

Despite all this, he justified Rose’s ban. Who knows what convoluted logic Cabinet, the government and ANC used to justify having the army, probably armed with loaded rifles, “policing” unthreatening parliamentarians, judges and media when in the past they resisted appeals to have the army patrol gang war zones, where the innocent were killed.

When the occasion suits him, De Vos argues opposite sides of the same constitutional principles and so should feel at home in President Jacob Zuma’s Cabinet. (Note that De Vos is a member of UCT’s ironically named Academic Freedom Committee.)

Thomas Johnson Cape Town