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PERMANENT REVOLUTION IN SOUTH AFRICA
 JOHANNESBURG; JUNE 24th 2005
 

June has brought a lot of political and legal issues to the fore in South Africa that have not been experienced before. First of all, June and particularly this June was meant to be the 50th anniversary of the momentous birth of the FREEDOM CHARTER (equivalent to the Canadian Charter, but under colonial circumstances) that was adopted at Klipton, South Africa by the ANC and its allies on June 26th, 1955. This document spelt the blue print for a free and democratic South Africa, free from racism and slavery. The white establishment feared that document like a plague. I have reread that document on my way to Johannesburg, as it is reproduced in the in-flight magazine of the South African Airways called SAWUBONA. The document is as relevant today, if not more so as it was in 1955. It was a call to arms. Much still needs to be
done in South Africa, especially in terms of housing, unemployment and poverty reduction which would go a long way in reducing crime and general inequalities. Talking about a call to arms. South Africa in June 2005 is like a country in a permanent state of revolution. The President Thabo Mbeki dismissed his vice-president Jacob Zuma in mid-June because a judge ruled in a corruption case that one Schabir Shaik was in a "generally corrupt relationship with the vice-president". The firing of the VP was hailed as a courageous move by many people in and out of South Africa. But a significant alliance coalition: the ANC youth league, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the South African Communist Party protested the firing. Some quarters feared a political break -down of the country because of the firing. Zuma was regarded as a very popular person with a lot of support within the ranks of the
ANC.

There was a lot of speculation as to who Mbeki would appoint as his new VP as that would signal the ultimate direction of the country and it would indicate also whether those disgruntled with the firing would be assuaged. Significantly, Mbeki appointed a woman to be the Vice-president, a second  in Africa and the first involving a large and significant country in the whole world to the best of my research. Uganda was the first country in Africa to appoint a female in 1994. The Vice-President in South Africa stands a good chance of being the next president. If this happens, South Africa will have the first female president in Africa in 2009, assuming no other African country beats it in the interim. This is a revolution. There are very few other countries that have had female presidents or prime ministers (though they have had female vice-presidents elsewhere), among them are: the Philippines, Dominica, Israel, Ireland, Canada (briefly), India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan.
 Permanent revolutionary markers are evident in other walks of South Africa. South Africa's ministers of Justice and Foreign Affairs are both women. These are very powerful posts in any government, let alone an African government where women's concerns have yet to predominate. South Africa also has a high percentage of female cabinet ministers. The only country that perhaps beats it is Rwanda where about 50% of cabinet ministers are female.
 The new Chief justice of the constitutional Court of South Africa, the highest court in South Africa is a black man, the first in South Africa's history. The Court itself is composed of whites, Indians, females, Jews and blacks- it is the most diverse court in terms of racial and gender mix of any country in the world. One justice is blind. There is a white female judge. There are male white judges. There is a female black judge.
 Given that it has only been ten years since the collapse of apartheid, this is revolutionary staff indeed. The dismissal Of Zuma has not led to the collapse of the country. June 16th, youth day was well celebrated, that is the anniversary of the Soweto massacre of June 16th, 1976, that accelerated the collapse of apartheid. Nelson Mandela's birthday on July 18th will be well celebrated. South African democracy is well on its way to be the beacon of diversity and durability to the world.

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                                         Last Modified: August 11, 2005

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