The South African Constitution is worth celebrating

AS WE marked Freedom Day in our beautiful but struggling country, we should spare a thought for Myanmar. The people of Myanmar enjoyed freedom fleetingly before the junta brutally crushed it. Too many people sacrificed too much and suffered too much for the freedom we enjoy. It came at a high price and we must cherish that freedom and stand up for our Constitution.

We must give all the support we can to the media to ensure that our freedom is never “muted”. We must agree with Independent Media’s editor-in-chief Aneez Salie that “true freedom in South Africa can only be realised when all voices are heard and acknowledged”. Indeed, that is how it will have to be. I recall, at Codesa, how most participants strove to reach consensus on intractable issues, through dialogue that was unimaginable in the political context of that time. It was jaw-jaw that prevailed and our new democracy was born.

For a while we were the darlings of the world. Hopes rose very high in our country. The danger of imbibing an attitude of exceptionalism was sounded from all sides. While we had every right to walk tall and enjoyed punching above our weight, we were not exceptional. This soon became very evident.

By 2010, graft and crime exploded to a level that was truly unimaginable. Monday’s editorial in the Cape Times bemoaned the fact that 27 years into our freedom, “the greatest concern of all is the fact that there is little to celebrate for many of our people”. Criminals in society and, worse still, bigger and more brazen criminals in the political sphere are robbing people of a decent livelihood, and taking away their right “to enjoy our open space, great beaches and scenic views”.

Criminals are holding considerable sway in our country and destroying it before our very own eyes. Listening to what is unfolding at the Zondo Commission and listening, in particular, to the explosive evidence of Gigaba’s estranged wife reveals to us the utter depravity of people at the top.

From as early as 2000, the ANC has been fighting the alleged stereotyping of the government it led as being corrupt, on the basis that it was being put in a position to prove itself to be innocent. Twenty-one years later, corruption in government is no longer an allegation. Corruption in government is endemic and persons of every race and hue are tangled in it together.

Corruption in society is equally shocking. All of this is wrongfully and unjustifiably putting pressure on the Constitution. We must not be detracted. Our Constitution is as near perfect as it can be. The problem is with self-serving and power-hungry political leaders who are consistently undermining it and devaluing it to erode its standing. We must never forget that it is because of our Constitution and the judiciary that we are still standing as a country and that we are not being brutalised, as the people of Myanmar, by a cruel and heartless junta.

If we had nothing else to celebrate on Freedom Day, let us continue to celebrate our Constitution every single day because of the freedom it guarantees all of us. Long live the Constitution. Long live.

FAROUK CASSIM | Cope Century View

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