Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian

Cultural commission to encourage nation building

1 min read

A panel of eminent South Africans has been selected to advise President Thabo Mbeki on appointments to the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious, and Linguistic Communities.

Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi said in a statement on Thursday the commission was the last of the independent constitutional institutions to be established.

It would ”play an important role in nation building”, he said.

The law regulating the establishment of the commission prescribes that a selection panel should be appointed to advise the president on appointments to the commission.

This panel will consist of:

  • Professor Cynthia Marivate (chief executive officer of the Pan South African Language Board);

  • Professor Karthy Govender (professor in the law faculty at the University of Natal, teaching constitutional and administrative law);

  • Professor Sandile Gxilishe (associate professor and head of the African languages and literature section within the department of African languages and linguistics at the University of Cape Town);

  • Cecil le Fleur (president of the National Khoisan Consultative Conference and chairman of the Head Council of the Griqua National Conference);

  • Antjie Krog (Afrikaans poet and journalist);

  • Reverend Cedric Mayson (chairman of the management committee of the Moral Regeneration Movement);

  • Advocate Pansy Tlakula (chief electoral officer of the Independent Electoral Commission); and

  • Dr Leon Wessels (member of the South African Human Rights Commission).

    • Mufamadi said the panel’s task was to shortlist candidates nominated to the commission.

    The panel would submit a list of at least 26 names to the president, who would appoint the chair and 17 other members.

    The selection panel would be holding its first meeting shortly, he said. – Sapa