Edwin Cameron’s place among SA’s galaxy of judicial stars is assured
Judge Edwin Cameron, the recently retired Constitutional Court justice, is a classic example of what our constitution envisions for society. Former Constitutional Court justice Albie Sachs posits that if we were to do a DNA test on SA’s constitution, we would find the DNA of Oliver Tambo all over it. I would posit that if we were to personify the constitution, Cameron would come very close to a personified image of it.
Over the years his leadership on the social challenges confronting SA has been critical, especially interventions for the working class. In his judgments, both in and out of the courts, he has displayed an uncanny ability to clothe himself in the struggles of the most vulnerable in society.
His voice on the question of the HIV/Aids epidemic was profound and critically urgent, particularly when he said: “I am not a medical expert, I am not a scientist or a doctor. But if we are to give people with HIV and Aids greater involvement in this epidemic, then we must all have a voice.”
Cameron has been a role model to many, including my own
generation and those before me, both as a citizen of our country and as a jurist.
With so many challenges in SA, I am not sure whether to bid farewell or welcome Cameron to the list of judges that will be called upon for national duty from time to time, for either commissions of inquiry or other bodies of national importance.
Judges do not retire; they will always be called upon and sometimes retired judges become busier than when they were on the bench.
Judges never retire; even in death their judgments will speak for generations to come; they will be used for references long after they have departed — by courts, academics, practitioners and society as a whole.
Generations to come will continue to imbue the knowledge of Cameron, because a judge makes rulings even from the grave. I have no doubt that with the contributions he has made to our jurisprudence he belongs to a prestigious group of judges that will rule from the grave by reference.
When former president Nelson Mandela called Cameron to the bench after 1994, he had wanted him to make equality before the law a living reality for our people. He wanted him to translate the transformative ethos of our constitution into tangible outcomes for the people. In other words, Mandela wanted every South African to feel and touch the constitution through his work on the bench, as Cameron identified with the challenges facing the masses of our people, particularly the poor and the downtrodden.
I have no doubt that Cameron’s academic background and practice in labour law influenced his consciousness as he came face to face with the discrimination and exploitation of black workers. It is precisely that which must have prepared him as a true South African lawyer with intimate knowledge of the conditions of the majority of the people of this country and the challenges facing lawyers, using law as an instrument for change.
This made him understand that transformation is not just a nice concept but that it must happen for us to have a stable democracy.
Today our fiscus is severely constrained because of corruption and state capture, our economy is stagnant and unemployment is on the rise. As society we are indebted to Cameron and his colleagues in the judiciary for preventing the complete collapse of our country.
The judiciary’s enforcement of the constitution came like divine intervention. In many ways, the ANC’s Ready to Govern document had foreseen these future challenges, hence the proclamation that the judiciary must be independent.
Equally, as a prominent human rights activist, Cameron has been a leading champion for the rights of the LGBTI community in SA and internationally.
He has shown that criticism of the judiciary is allowed where necessary but that it must be fair and informed; it must not descend, as we see today, into personal attacks on judges or the judiciary without facts or substance.
Personal attacks on judges or the judiciary do not contribute anything positive to our jurisprudence or to our body politic; they distract our society from dealing with the real issues facing it and must be condemned from whatever quarter they come from.
Cameron will, therefore, be counted among the galaxy of stars whenever the history of our jurisprudence is narrated, among which are the late Dullah Omar, justice Arthur Chaskalson, justice Richard Goldstone, justice Pius Langa and many other esteemed retired judges who continue to be of esteemed service to our country in line with the motto “judges never retire”.