Chief justice would better serve law by keeping faith to himself
CHIEF Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng precipitated an interesting but controversial discussion concerning the role of religion in law in an address to the second annual African Law and Religion Conference at the University of Stellenbosch.
Mogoeng decried the levels of maladministration and corruption. These, in his view, “would be effectively turned around significantly if religion were to be factored into the law-making process”.
The views of the chief justice, although well intended, are disingenuous and unwise.
South Africa has a secular constitution with a Bill of Rights that guarantees freedom of religion. Freedom of religion involves not only the right to choose a religion, but also the right to be areligious, such as agnostic or atheist.
Both the state and the government must always remain neutral in relation to religion and neither favour any specific religion nor believers over non-believers.
Although the chief justice is correct in bewailing the lack of morality and integrity in administration and government, such a state of affairs cannot be remedied by a simplistic notion of factoring religion into law-making.
In this regard, the government, civil society and all religious faiths and organisations have a fundamental contribution to make by both example and precept.
Such a contribution should be based on the universal values of, for example, human dignity, equality and freedom, which are set out in the constitution and are religiously neutral values.
The chief justice and all other judges should in their public pronouncements adopt a neutral role in relation to religion.
A publicly declared expression of a religious opinion, however sincere, can create “a reasonable apprehension of bias”, which is the criterion used to determine bias or impartiality by a court of law.
Although a mere private religious opinion can do no harm, once the perception flows from statements in the media, a serious problem arises.
Judges, like all other persons, are entitled to religious and political views and obviously entitled to be devout, but such views should remain essentially private.
When persons assume office on the bench, they may not compromise the requirements of the independence and impartiality of the judiciary of which they are a part by publicly ventilating their religious views.
Mogoeng has not only failed by the views he expressed to maintain impartiality, but has also compromised the independence of the judiciary of which he, as chief justice, should be its most cogent exponent.
There is no reason to doubt the sincerity and integrity of the chief justice in relation to the religious views expressed in public, but there exist profound objections in relation to the jurisprudential wisdom of publicly airing these views relating to religion. — George Devenish, University of KwaZulu-Natal professor emeritus, who assisted in drafting the interim constitution in 1993
Islam and moderation
THE opinion page of June 1 illustrates an interesting juxtaposition of views: Zapiro’s cartoon reveals his concern over the possible return of barbaric, primitive punishments by lampooning Mogoeng as a hellfire preacher.
The editorial “Sacred trust not to bend the constitution to private belief” is equally alarmed that the chief justice seems to be bent on ignoring one of the principal tenets of our constitution — the separation of church and state.
In Readers’ Views, AK Mia agrees with the “outrage and anger” generated by the Muslim world against Salman Rushdie.
Christians consider that Jesus and the New Testament superseded the original Jewish religion and that there is a duty to proselytise throughout the world, including to Jews.
The outcome was centuries of bloody
Rape takes many forms
NO, Hogarth, you’ve either lost it or you are the biggest mampara of them all by declaring Charlize Theron one.
People must remove their blinkers and look up the definition of rape, which has many meanings. People are mentally raped and tortured by the thousands; many millions have been, and still are, brainwashed daily by others — governments, superiors — often not even realising it. That, too, is rape.
People feel raped when their privacy is invaded, when their home is broken into, and Theron feels raped by the media for violating (another meaning of rape) her privacy. The problem is that she has a high public profile and, like many others in similar positions, the media insist on snooping around, and deeply at that. People have even referred to the rape by colonial powers of the resources in their colonies.
But whether Theron was “raped” or history — crusades, inquisition, the conquest and conversion of the Americas, rival sects torturing and burning each other — until the Reformation, Enlightenment and Age of Reason influenced and restrained these extremist tendencies.
Unfortunately, in Islam — the youngest of the three Abrahamic traditions — there has been no such moderating influence.
Some states still punish and execute apostates, adulteresses and homosexuals in the most appalling ways. — David Lawson, St Lucia
In the name of the father’s faith
THE “unapologetic proselytiser” AK Mia is blasphemously incorrect in his efforts to sweeten the notion that Muslims have “the right and duty to invite others to follow Islamic beliefs and practices”.
Really, Mr Mia, are you saying “invite”? That is a nice portrayal of a cunning way to convert people to Islam. Let me give readers some perspective. First, if your son wants to marry my Hindu daughter, she will be forced to convert to Islam and be given a new identity (from Sumeshni to Sumaya). I don’t see that as an invite.
Generally, we might say okay, it’s customary for the girl to follow the husband. But wait a minute, we later find out that my Hindu son wants to marry your daughter. I don’t need to explain to the wider readership of this newspaper that Mahesh will now be known as Mohammed. — SL Poonan, Mbombela
A flammable mix
YOUR editorial “Sacred trust not to bend the constitution to private belief” about keeping religion out of politics is spot-on. Just look at the Middle East! — Alon, by SMS
Inauguration worthy of a party
‘WE will just have to wait out Zuma and his cabinet of cronies” (June 1) refers.
Barney Mthombothi lives on a sugarcandy mountain. Barack Obama was inaugurated for a second term, but the amount of money spent was even more extravagant than for the first term. Was it criminal? The answer is a big “no”.
We must not criticise for the sake of criticising, because this is one of the things that creates hatred and ultimately divides us as a country.
Many of the activities involve the protection of our visitors or guests and are not about President Jacob Zuma. It is about us as a nation. Extravagance or not, democracy needs to be celebrated.
We can’t risk having a president of another country killed in South Africa simply because of this myopic attitude towards Zuma, or cost-cutting.
The inauguration of a president is a national programme in South Africa and it takes place every five years — surely it is projected and budgeted for.
The costs were reasonable. Sometimes not, expressing herself in this way did not justify you declaring her a mampara, which was stupid and makes you the ultimate mampara last weekend. — Peter Smulik, Cape Town we must just stop narrow political partiality and be South Africans for once. — Pat Raolane, by e-mail ‘A HEALTHY way of doing business” (June 1) refers. Government departments might have better production and commitment if there were basic facilities like working air conditioning, no overcrowding and so on before even trying a crèche facility and the other dreams set out in the article. — Ex-employee, by SMS
Engineering jobs? Where?
‘MORE than 200 chances to sing for your supper” (June 1) has left me confused.
There is always a cry about the shortage of engineers in South Africa.
But we have students who completed their S4 heavy-duty electrical engineering from a university of technology in 2007 and till today can’t get the in-service training they need.
How are children to be encouraged to pursue their careers? Those that are lucky to get in-service training just become operators. — Anon, by SMS
No work to be had
I CAN only wonder where the author of “More than 200 chances to sing for your supper” (June 1) obtained their facts.
I am a qualified electrical engineer (with an additional two postgraduate qualifications), have worked in the IT industry for more than 25 years and have managed large, complex projects in many industries for more than 18 years, yet I have been unable to find any employment for the past two years or more.
Perhaps I need to add that I am white, male and over 60 years of age? The same can be said for at least two colleagues of mine in similar positions. — Allen Lang, by e-mail
Why don’t the women count?
WHEN Angie Motshekga, president of the ANC Women’s League, says in So Many Questions (June 1) “but it is a constant battle”, who in the ANC is resisting the rise of women?
Is that force stronger than all the women in the party, who are said to be more than the men in number?— Jabu Rakwena, Emalahleni
We’d settle for working air con
The DA’s version of Pik Botha
DID Madam Zille order — or draft — Mike Mampariarty’s sycophantic epistle in Readers’ Views (June 1)? The initial “leak” came from a journalist who sounded like a Helen Zille echo while working for Afrikaans papers.
It smacked of Madam “retaliating first” from the start. So, can we please move away from the DA’s version of Pik Botha and focus on something more newsworthy, such as the number of matches in a box? — Wim Els, Table View
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