How can we continue to live as miserable as we do, fearing at every turn we might be attacked, or killed, with perpetrators of unprecedented and unrelenting acts of violence walking our streets unabated.
These acts of criminality confront us in our homes and streets daily in a new country we declared as a constitutional democracy nearly 30 years ago.
The sons and daughters of this land, young and old, in their numbers, sacrificed their lives, swelled the people’s armies such as uMkhonto we Sizwe, Azanian People Liberation Army and Azanian National Liberation Army, to fight evil brought about by the apartheid state.
Our eyes were focused on the promise of a better world – a promised democracy with criminals, rapists and perpetrators of gender-based violence and femicide, all locked up behind bars, in keeping with the promptings of the constitution.
If only to remind ourselves: on April 27, 1994, most South Africans eligible to vote joined long queues throughout the country to vote for a democratic government without violence.
For the first five years of that period, we installed a government of national unity, as a way of transitioning from the old to the new, and in some way, to learn the ropes of running a complex administration, with Nelson Mandela at the helm of the new project that was still figuring things out, putting its ducks in a row, so to speak, for the sake of building an egalitarian society we all envisioned.
The new land at its infancy required something new and just to keep governance together, so the Westminster-style of running the country’s affairs where parliamentary sovereignty ruled supreme, was abandoned for a system where the constitution became the supreme law of the country.
The implication of this meant that the legislative branch of government, which is parliament, would have its “almighty power” clipped, and that it could no longer make unconstitutional laws that oppressed others without being checked by the judiciary, an unelected branch of government.
So, a system of separation of powers, through the new constitution, came into existence. This was to ensure that, among other things, parliament did not abuse its power, and that its authority was circumscribed by the constitution, and so any law passed by it would have to meet constitutional muster.
Parliamentary sovereignty, on the other hand, meant that all political power was conferred on the legislative branch of government, which is the parliament.
This was politically dangerous, for it meant politicians in parliament could do what pleased their hearts’ desire, and could pass any law without regard to whether it was constitutional or not.
Between 1994 and 1996, the country was run through the interim constitution, this until 1996 when the new constitution was signed into law and certificated, with Mandela appending his signature at an historic venue of Sharpeville, Vereeniging – the site at which anti-pass laws protesters were mowed down by the apartheid bullets on March 21, 1960.
So, December 10, 1996, at the place of massacre and bloodshed 34 years earlier, would turn to become a place marking the onset of a new constitution upon which the government of the dreams of South Africans would be built, using the constitution to keep at bay all
human excesses, including violence and criminal acts.
The founding provisions of the new constitution was based on human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms where the constitution would be the supreme law, and that any law inconsistent with it would be declared invalid.
Constitutional democracy limps if it is incapable of protecting its citizens.
Noteworthy is that the constitution empowers the government to protect its citizens from harm, from criminals, and to ensure criminals are restrained from harming citizens.
Section 199 of the constitution states that “the security services of the Republic consist of a single defence force, a single police service and any intelligence services established in terms of the constitution”.
This implies, as s205 tells us, that “the objects of the police service are to prevent, combat and investigate crime, to maintain public order, to protect and secure the inhabitants of the Republic and their property, and to uphold and enforce the law”.
Sadly, this is not how millions of South Africans feel. They feel abandoned by their government, whose policing methods are far from adequate to ensure their safety.
- Mdhlela is a Sunday World Acting News Editor, an Anglican priest, ex-trade unionist and former editor of the SA Human Rights Commission journals
