SA losing its way, top jurist warns
Constitution ‘misunderstood and disrespected’
RETIRED Judge Bernard Ngoepe is a worried man.
The former Gauteng judge president is worried about what he sees as a growing trend of disrespect for the constitution and the Chapter 9 institutions — as well as a growing culture of entitlement and a general decline in the standards of service across all sectors of South African society.
Ngoepe also added his voice this week to the outcry against those who attempt to undermine public protector Thuli Madonsela or disrespect her or her office.
“We need to have a culture in terms of which we respect the constitution and those institutions which have been created by the constitution to help us realise the dream that we have, the dream of a truly democratic South Africa,” he told legal practitioners at the 125th birthday celebration of law firm Rooth & Wessels last week.
In his speech, he questioned why South Africa, with its acclaimed constitution, continued to suffer high levels of inequality, crime, corruption and a disregard for other people’s property.
“If we, indeed, do have the best constitution in the world, how come somebody just finds your piece of land and puts up a shack there and says: ‘ Unless you offer me alternative accommodation, I am not moving’?”
He said that on a recent trip to his home town of Polokwane, Limpopo, he could not find parking because the bays had been taken over by street vendors.
“The municipality was unable to collect money for parking,” said Ngoepe.
In an interview this week, Ngoepe said of the constitution: “People think it gives them rights without limitations. They think the constitution means that you must get everything for nothing. You don’t pay for water, you must not pay for electricity. It cannot mean that.
“So there is a problem in the way we understand, interpret and apply this constitution.”
During his speech, Ngoepe decried “falling standards” in professions.
“Over the 18 years I have been a judge, I have had occasion . .. to clearly see that some lawyers come to court ill-prepared and really inadequate,” he said.
In his interview, he blamed the drop in standards in large part on the quality of education.
“It may also be that in our schools — right through to university — the culture of learning
They think the constitution means you get everything for nothing
is not as it should be,” he said. “I am not convinced that it has a lot to do with a lack of resources. We come from a history where there was a tremendous lack of resources in relation to certain racial groups, but people made the best with the little they had.”
South Africans had a culture of entitlement that discouraged them from working hard, he said.
“You find a young professional completing studies this year and he already wants to drive one of the most expensive cars without putting any effort to earn that.
“Sometimes people think that they are entitled to huge salaries and payments without deserving them.”
Ngoepe, who was involved in the drafting of the 1993 interim constitution, said even though the constitution spoke of a right to accommodation, it did not mean that people could illegally occupy property without any consequences.
Ngoepe disputed any charge that the constitution or the system were soft on criminals.
“There may be very few instances here and there where people feel the court may have been lenient with the sentence.
“But, on the whole, I don’t think that our system deals with criminals in a lenient manner.”
What he was not happy about, he said, was the parole system.
“[It] is too lenient and often releases to the community dangerous people.
“I would welcome a debate — an enlightenment by anybody to say that I am wrong with regard to the parole system.”
In terms of Madonsela, he said he was “disturbed” by the language used by some of her detractors. “Inappropriate lan- guage was used. This is not only about the public protector. Sometimes unfortunate remarks are made about judges and the judiciary,” he said.