Constitution our shield when going gets tough

We can’t adhere to some principles but not others

ONE of South Africa’s most respected jurists, Edwin Cameron, launched his compelling memoir, Justice: A Personal Account, on Thursday. There were moments when I had a huge lump in my throat as I read this moving story of a little boy who grows up destitute in a children’s home and, after numerous chapters of sweat, loss and discrimination, rises to become a judge in the highest court of the land. It is an inspiring story in a society in which accidents of birth can determine whether one’s journey is characterised by comfort or never-ending struggle.

He could not have chosen a more apt venue to launch a book that, in essence, is a celebration of our sacred constitution. We gathered at the Constitutional Court at Constitution Hill, a monument that is a citadel of democracy and justice. Cameron said: “The law offered me a chance to remedy and repair my life . . . The constitution offers us the chance to repair and remedy our country.”

This event came two days after our East African neighbour, Uganda, signed a ghastly and revolting anti-gay law. With pen in hand, President Yoweri Museveni dehumanised gay people. He has not only annihilated their rights and dignity, but, in signing this obscene law, also given a voice to the homophobes in society. They have all come out now, invoking God and culture. And we know that nobody has ever won an argument with God’s spokespeople, for they choose which parts of his teachings to uphold and which to ignore.

Museveni is not the only homophobe who heads a state. Thirty-eight African countries have laws criminalising private, consensual sexual conduct between adults of the same sex. In four of them, anyone convicted of such conduct may face the death penalty. It is shattering that Uganda’s minister of ethics and integrity, Father Simon Lokodo, asserts that men raping girls is morally preferable to consensual

They must be reminded that fair and just laws protect you even when you have lost power

homosexual activity.

I do not understand this obsession with gay people. Do Museveni et al not have enough on their plates? Poverty, unemployment, a lack of food security, corruption, wars? Attention is surreptitiously deflected from his 28-year despotic rule and conveniently focused on gay people.

Here at home, those who torch the properties of foreign shop owners and launch cowardly attacks on them often argue that “they are stealing our business”. And those responsible for the attacks on foreign nationals in general also claim “they are stealing our jobs. They are here illegally.” So does that mean they do not have a right to life?

Ordinary citizens are not the only ones who need to be reminded of the values of our constitution. When proposing and voting on any piece of legislation, those in power need to be reminded that those laws must work for them even when they are no longer in power. They must be reminded that fair and just laws protect you even when you have lost that power.

There is a lot that we can say about the limitations of the constitution, but when the chips are down it is still the best and only guarantor of our rights. We must defer to it even when it is most inconvenient to do so. That others must be harmed simply because we do not agree with their choices is unconstitutional. And so we should constantly reflect on our taxing journey to the final adoption of our constitution. We must not forget the scars many endured to get us to that destination. And, in pondering this chapter of our lives as South Africans, I was reminded of my own individual power and authority to give life to this supreme constitution.

The decisions I make every day can determine whether or not someone is afforded or denied his or her rights. Every single citizen can give meaning to the highest law of the land by deferring to it in good and bad times, by affording others their right to live and prosper, in the full knowledge that our own rights are not obliterated when we do so.