UPHOLDING OUR CONSTITUTION - "THE DR REUEL KHOZA DEBATE"
The internet and, I imagine, most of South Africa are abuzz with discussions of media reports into certain statements made by Dr Reuel Khoza, non-executive chairman of the Nedbank Group Limited, in the Chairman's Report forming part of the Nedbank Group Limited's 2011 Annual Report, reportedly released last Friday, 30 March 2012.
The majority of the reports that I have seen thus far, as well as the public's comments on them, conclude that the statements in question refer to the leaders and leadership of the African National Congress. One such report, published on the iafrica.com website, even went as far as attaching a picture depicting the "cake cutting ceremony" by some leaders of the ANC during the ANC's centenary celebrations in Mangaung on January 8 2012.
I came to know about the media reports on the statements made by Dr Khoza through a text message from a friend reading: "I hear that the chairman of Nedbank has written a letter attacking the ANC. Have you seen it?" I had neither seen nor heard of such a "letter". I also could not think of any reason why the chairman of the Nedbank Group Limited would choose to engage in a public spat with the ANC.
After all, if media reports of ANC-aligned people unjustifiably lining their pockets had any truth to them, the bank, known for its preference of the super-rich clients, would run the risk of losing any ANC-aligned clients and the business that their supposedly ill-gotten gains brings to the bank. I was surprised and curious.
Thanks to our 21st century technology, I was able to do a few internet searches which directed me to certain media reports on the statements contained in Dr Khoza's Chairman's Report. I then navigated my way through the internet destined for the Nedbank Group's website and, voila, there was Dr Khoza's report - the Chairman's Report forming part of the Nedbank Group Limited's 2011 Annual Report.
I read the document with keen interest and heightened attention to detail to ensure that I missed nothing of the statements in question. Having reached the bottom of the report without seeing any mention of African National Congress or the acronym ANC or the name(s) of any ANC leader(s) or ANC-aligned people, I returned to the beginning of the report and once again carefully read through it. Still nothing.
I then wondered how it was that others, including journalists, could have seen mention of the ANC and/or any of its leaders and/or any people aligned to the ANC in Dr Khoza's report when I could not. Assuming that my eyes were indeed not deceiving me and that there indeed was no mention of the ANC and/or any of its leaders and/or any people aligned to the ANC in Dr Khoza's report, I still could not help but wonder how it was that the reports that I had read, and the comments on them, had been so quick to presume that Dr Khoza was referring to the ANC leaders and/or leadership.
Reproduced verbatim below are Dr Khoza's statements, appearing in the Chairman's Report under the heading UPHOLDING OUR CONSTITUTION:-
SA is widely recognised for its liberal and enlightened constitution, yet we observe the emergence of a strange breed of leaders who are determined to undermine the rule of law and override the constitution. Our political leadership's moral quotient is degenerating and we are fast losing the checks and balances that are necessary to prevent a recurrence of the past. This is not the accountable democracy for which generations suffered and fought.
The integrity, health, socioeconomic soundness and prosperity of SA is the collective responsibility of all citizens, corporate or individual. We have a duty to build and develop this nation and to call to book the putative leaders who, due to sheer incapacity to deal with the complexity of 21st century governance and leadership, cannot lead.
We have a duty to insist on strict adherence to the institutional forms that underpin our young democracy.
Dr Khoza talks of "the emergence of a strange breed of leaders", the degeneration of "our political leadership's moral quotient" and our duty (as ordinary citizens) "to call to book the putative leaders who, due to sheer incapacity to deal with the complexity of 21st century governance and leadership, cannot lead." (My emphasis)
To the best of my knowledge, understanding and belief, politics and political leadership in this country are not the exclusive domain of the African National Congress. To the best of my knowledge, understanding and belief, South Africa has numerous political organisations/parties which are led by political leaders. Some of these political parties are represented in parliament, the provincial legislatures and the municipalities through members from their respective ranks.
How then could Dr Khoza's reference to ‘leaders', ‘political leadership' and ‘putative leaders' be so readily taken, by members of the media no less, to mean the ANC leaders and/or leadership? My head was spinning.
I am not in the habit of playing the player but my inability to see Dr Khoza's statements through the lens of the media's collective eye led me to a further internet search that delivered me at the door of Dr Khoza's website, which opened into Dr Khoza's blog, in particular a post dated 13 March 2012 and titled UNDERMINING THE CONSTITUTION.
Could it be that Dr Khoza's post of 13 March 2012, among other writings he may have produced that I may not be aware of, is the basis upon which many in the media were quick to infer that the statements contained in Dr Khoza's "Chairman's Report'" related to the leaders and/or leadership of the ANC?
If my understanding of Dr Khoza's arguments, as contained in his post of 13 March 2012, is correct, he does not claim that the ANC, as the ruling party, is undermining the Constitution. Rather, Dr Khoza cautions, in the context of the ANC's internal debate on the need or otherwise for the amendment of the property clause contained in the Bill of Rights, against undermining the spirit and purpose of the Constitution in amending any provisions of the Constitution.
To the best of my knowledge, understanding and belief, our Constitution, the supreme law of our land, has been amended no less than 16 times! To the best of my knowledge, understanding and belief, none of these amendments has undermined the spirit and/or purpose of the Constitution. Why then would the ANC, as the ruling party, suddenly seek amendments that are at variance with the spirit and/or purpose of the Constitution?
To the best of my knowledge, understanding and belief, there are constitutional safeguards against the unconstitutional amendment of any statutory laws of the land, including the Constitution itself. These safeguards encompass the processes of amending any legislation and, where such processes fail or are not properly observed, recourse to the Constitutional Court, the highest court in the land on all constitutional matters.
Thus, if for whatever reason the ANC, as the ruling party, were to suddenly find too irresistible the urge to amend the property clause in a manner that is inconsistent with the spirit and/or purpose of the Constitution, notwithstanding that the ANC-elected members of parliament do not constitute the two-thirds majority required, at the very least, to amend any provision of the Bill of Rights, recourse could be had to the Constitutional Court to have the ANC, as the ruling party, toe the line.
Having read Dr Khoza's post of 13 March 2012, I was still no closer to understanding what it is or was that could have informed the media's reporting of Dr Khoza's statements as contained in the "Chairman's Report".
Perhaps Dr Khoza has a history of bashing the ANC such that it no longer is necessary for him to mention the ANC by name when critiquing the country's political landscape. I have no clue. Perhaps our learned brothers and sisters in the media have all the answers.
However, my observations are that we, as ordinary citizens of this country, have allowed both the media and political parties in this country to polarise us. The constant and often baseless and sensationalised barrage of anti-ANC media reports and opposition drivel has led many pro-ANC members of our society to defend the ANC's position at all costs.
Similarly, the pre-1994 fear of an ANC-led government that continues to inform the beliefs, decisions and actions of many anti-ANC members of our society has led many to criticise the ANC at all costs - even in the face of evidence of advances made and being made in bettering our beloved South Africa.
Then there are those who are bitter because they or their preferred candidates were beaten hands down at the ANC's elective conference in Polokwane in December 2007, and who will criticise the ANC simply because, despite their claimed education, they failed to see the writing on the wall and backed the wrong horse(s) for the wrong reasons.
Political parties and their leaders have been absolved of their responsibility to account to the people they supposedly lead - because our attention has been focused on either opposing or defending the ANC, whatever the consequences.
The DA, as the national opposition, is so hell-bent on portraying the ANC and all associated with the ANC in any manner, shape or form as incompetent that even where it is the ruling party, in the Western Cape Province, it continues, three years into its governance, to spend an incredible amount of time digging up dirt on the ANC, in its capacity as the previous leader of that Province's provincial and local governments (where applicable), to display to the world; that it seems to have forgotten that it has a constitutional duty to govern the Province and, as promised in its 2009 local government election campaign slogan, DELIVER FOR ALL.
Similarly, as the opposition party in the Western Cape Province, the ANC seems to be hell-bent on exposing the DA's dirt that it too appears to have forgotten its constitutional duty to participate in the governance of that province.
The smaller opposition parties, whatever level of government they are supposedly participating at, appear no different either. Instead of engaging in robust debates on matters that will enable the country to move forward, they seem only too eager to be used as pawns in the political wars raging between the country's dominant political parties and will jump back and forth between the beds of the major political parties if such conduct guarantees their political survival or, more appropriately, prolongs their dismal political lives and their inevitable political deaths.
We (ordinary citizens of this country) have a duty to insist on strict adherence to the institutional forms that underpin our young democracy (to employ the words of Dr Khoza) and that duty should be our "moral quotient". Otherwise, we will be just as blameworthy as our political leaders, whatever their breed, and political leadership should our beloved country go to the dogs.
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
