Merit must be only criteria
KETANJI Brown Jackson will soon assume her seat as the 116th justice of the United States Supreme Court after being confirmed by the US Senate.
Importantly, she will be the first woman of colour from a minority group, since the days of slavery, to be appointed as a justice to the highest court of the land. Thurgood Marshall was the first man of colour to be appointed to the US Supreme Court in 1967.
But her appointment, with all the pomp and pageantry associated with it, has relevance for women, especially minorities, around the world.
In the patriarchal society that we live in, despite the veil of freedom and equal rights that women are considered to have in most societies, her appointment rings with significance and value. Her appointment matches her CV in terms of merit, capability, legal wisdom, integrity and being an already distinguished jurist.
Like Judge Jackson, there are countless women worldwide who deserve holding positions that were once considered the exclusive preserve of men. South Africa is no exception.
“Merit” is a dangerous word these days, especially when it is used to trump colour, ethnicity, religion or any other divisive factor. It was the primary abiding criteria that was used to appoint Judge Jackson and that must be a point of departure that the entire world must start.
In South Africa, sadly and ironically, the dictum of merit does not apply as equally as we would like it to – colour is the trump card no matter how loud one dares to scream to deny it.
Admittedly, women have been given prominence in certain aspects to satisfy a constitutional prerogative – but that comes with an unwritten caveat. The guiding mantra is that it must be women of colour, and more importantly, they must be classified black. This, I believe, is a constitutional aberration.
Women from minority groups, racially speaking, are generally not high up in the pecking order no matter how qualified or capable they may be as compared to their black counterparts. This must change.
If South Africa has anything to learn from the appointment of Judge Jackson, it is that women, even from minority groupings, are worthy of holding the highest positions of responsibility and authority, if given fair and equal opportunities.
Because of South Africa’s past, that was mired in ignominy in terms of race classification and legislated discrimination, we find ourselves back in the past but with a reversal of what was the norm then. The idea of correcting past imbalances, 28 years on, worthy as it may be, becomes fatally flawed for future progress if we remove merit from the equation.
Many women from the now so-called minority groups in South Africa (white, Indian, coloured) are quite often subjected to an exclusionary clause simply based on colour, despite being the most fit-for-purpose candidate in some situations.
And for as long as we continue in this fashion, we are at risk of losing potentially capable women from holding positions in which they can excel and be productive.
Before I hear the chorus of racist, let me hasten to add that in no way is there any suggestion that women of colour are not capable. There are many examples that can show otherwise, but, like in the Judge Jackson case, it must be merit that supersedes all else. Her colour became secondary to the matter at hand and a cursory perusal of her background and competence suggests that her credentials matched her appointment.
While I speak of women in particular in the above, the matter of merit in appointments must be used across all genders because merit is the only criteria that has the potential of bringing out the best and most productive resources that every society needs.
Transformation is now often touted as a means of correcting past inequities, but for how long do we transform – 10, 20, 100 years? While South Africa is certainly a work-in-progress, there has to be a limit on this concept or else we will be immured in perpetuity in an aspect that means good but yields little in the greater scheme of things.
Merit must become the currency through which our future and the future of this country is determined so that those generations yet unborn will enter a world that is as fair and as just as we could possibly have, making society that much better.
Hopefully, South Africa can learn from this appointment that in an apparently equal society, anything less than merit brooks greater problems and unfairness. More importantly, women can also become captains and champions in any field of human endeavour they choose, given fair and equal opportunity, as they so rightly deserve.