Recent events in the judicial and political environments of
our country betray a curious duality – the strength as well
as the fragility of our constitutional democracy.
It has been heartening to see that despite the alarming decay witnessed in
two of the three arms of government, the judiciary is as robust and effective
as it has ever been.
The fact that we are celebrating Justice Mogoeng’s seminal
constitutional ruling is nevertheless instructive. In dark times the faintest
ray of light does much to inspire flagging hope. Not least when a grim sense of
despair casts a forbidding shadow, as it has over our once hopeful nation.
Not unlike the proverbial deer under headlights, we seemed as those incapacitated
by the advance of emboldened purveyors of corruption, along with the accompanying
sense of impunity.
Though we are by no means out of the woods, civil society has been given
a propitious platform upon which to mount a spirited counter offensive
against those intent on destroying our blood-wrought democracy.
If anything, what the Zuma administration has given us is a needed
wake-up call from the post-apartheid slumber that naively relinquished all civic
power to politicians who are universally known for their corruptibility.
Citizens of our fledgling democracy would do well to pay attention to the
words often mistakenly attributed to Thomas Jefferson – eternal vigilance is
the price of liberty!
Jefferson’s sobriety about the delicacy of democracy is further
reinforced by his prescient caution - “the tree of liberty must be refreshed
from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”.
The devastating civil war that almost tore apart the US only a few decades after his death underlines the breadth of his perception.
The devastating civil war that almost tore apart the US only a few decades after his death underlines the breadth of his perception.
Thankfully we are yet to arrive at that place. We would nevertheless be
well advised to abandon our misplaced sense of exceptionalism that imagines us impervious to such misadventure.
It is time for civil society to wake up from its untimely slumber, lest
we wake up to find one-day a howling wasteland where a promising country once
promised to bloom.
