Former Constitutional Court judge Edwin Cameron has warned that SA’s legal system is under threat following July’s failed insurrection that led to more than 300 fatalities and caused billions of rand in damages.
“Mob justice briefly prevailed, threatened our legal system and the rule of law — and the poorest and most resource-deprived and desperate of people suffered the worst,” Cameron told a social justice summit hosted by Stellenbosch University on Tuesday.
The violence and looting followed the incarceration of former president Jacob Zuma on July 8. Clashes flared up in KwaZulu-Natal before spreading to Gauteng, where droves of people stormed warehouses, looted stock and gutted premises. Within four days President Cyril Ramaphosa deployed 10,000 soldiers to support the police at a cost of R255m.
“To return to president Zuma, the recent failed insurrection in July — just three months ago — threatened to undermine all we have worked so hard to achieve in our country, because it sought to wreck not just the institutions of government, not just the instruments of economic progress but also our faith in our country itself,” said Cameron.
He said the events of mid-2021 revealed the fragility of SA’s democracy. “We are still suffering an assault from those same forces that instigated the insurrection, who are seeking to undermine truth in our public discourse,” he warned.
In this context, said Cameron, there was an urgent need for economic equity and a capable state. “Without a capable state we can neither remedy inequality nor provide the elements of basic security to our people.”
Cameron bemoaned the “wasted years of corruption and state capture” under Zuma, and highlighted the necessity of a capable state with principled leaders, reformed institutions and responsive public servants.
“To embrace social justice … we must elect truthful and incorruptible and capable leaders who are capable also — does anyone think I’m referring to our president — capable also of taking decisive action,” he said.
Rule of law
He called the rule of law the foundation of a well-functioning democracy. “We are at a pivotal moment in our democracy. Now is the time to fight with practical, hard means for social justice … concrete deliverables. The key to this is hanging on to the rule of law,” he said.
Also speaking at the summit, former public protector Thuli Madonsela raised doubts that all in the country feel part of the national family Ramaphosa addresses in his so-called family meetings about the national lockdowns.
On inequality in SA, she asked, “Does everybody feel part of this family?” The Stellenbosch University’s law trust chair for social justice pressed for a more democratic and equal society. “During tough times a family pulls together, sacrifices together, endure short-term challenges together,” said Madonsela.
She rejected the “false binary” between saving lives and saving livelihoods during the Covid-19 pandemic. She found the government’s response favoured “mostly big business” and proved “clumsy” when it came to the owners of small enterprises. “This was particularly the case when it comes to rural economies and township economies,” she said.
Two economists spoke at the summit, sharing their views on social justice and the distribution of wealth. Nthabiseng Moleko, who holds a PhD in development finance and teaches at Stellenbosch Business School, insisted SA’s mineral energy complex must be broken up. Raw minerals, for example, should be extracted and processed locally.
Moleko further argued the country must reduce dependence on foreign investment and improve local investment in bonds. “We have to reimagine financial systems that are for us,” she said.
Prof Lorenzo Fioramonti shared Moleko’s view that SA’s economic system needs to change.
Fioramonti, a political economy lecturer at the University of Pretoria, argued true economic value should be calculated incorporating factors such as environmental impact and people’s wellbeing. “Our growth model is broken,” he said.
The social justice summit concluded with Gift of the Givers founder Imtiaz Sooliman receiving this year’s title of “social justice champion” for his humanitarian work.
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