Gaye Davis
THE Human Rights Committee has asked the Constitutional Court to allow members of the public to appear before it to give their views on the final Constitution, on grounds that much of what has emerged has come out of closed political party negotiations.
The Constitutional Court has set aside the month of June to deal with certifying the final Constitution. It is understood that political parties will be allowed to make submissions as the court considers whether or not the text complies with the 34 principles enshrined in the interim Constitution.
Human Rights Committee national chairperson Professor Jeremy Sarkin said it was not enough to allow only politicians to address the court. While the Constitutional Assembly had been inundated by public submissions, the amount of influence they had had on the process was open to question.
“Did people who made submissions really make a difference in terms of what the Constitution looks like? When you look at the final draft, it looks like a politicians’ document. Was the submission process consultation in theory, or did it allow for consultation in practice?”
An evaluation of the public participation, media, education and plain language campaigns of the Constitutional Assembly carried out in February found that people were more likely to have heard about the Constitution and felt part of the process if they were younger, educated and lived in a town or city than if they were poorly educated, lived in a rural area or were female.
Conducted by the Community Agency for Social Enquiry (Case), the survey sampled 3 800 South Africans soon after the draft Constitution was released. Eight percent, or two million adults, had already seen it, while 82%, or 21 million adults, wanted to know more about it.
Case has argued strongly that the education campaign not be halted but be intensified when the final Constitution is launched.