Like many other citizens, I wait anxiously for the latest news on the condition of the South African Constitution, which was admitted to intensive care yesterday afternoon. According to a statement issued by the head of the Critical Political Afflictions Centre (CPAC) in Midrand, the Constitution is in deep coma and has been on life-support since admission to the centre. It is expected to remain on this support for at least another week.
The statement said that the first and most important thing was to try to stabilise the Constitution, so that careful assessment and diagnosis could begin. Treatment and rehabilitation would only then take place. ‘The Constitution is in an extremely critical condition at the moment. Keeping it alive is our first priority,” said Dr JG Lumsden-Badenhorst, director of the intensive care unit at CPAC.
First signs of imminent collapse of the Constitution had come shortly after it had again been subjected to extreme stress by parliamentary floor-crossing exercises, conducted in flagrant violation of certain inalienable guarantees contained in the Constitution. Eager to gain power in the Western Cape some years ago, at any cost and by any means, the African National Congress casually ignored electoral guarantees in the Constitution that disallowed politicians, posing and elected as representatives of one party, to change their allegiances by crossing the floor to other and more lucratively funded parties.
These techniques were again deployed in August and September of this year and which dealt yet another crippling body-blow to the Constitution.
The Constitution had previously been under sustained mortar attack by the Health Ministry, which had mercilessly demolished obligations with regard to healthcare for HIV-positive pregnant women. The health minister, herself, commanded the direct bombardment of the extremely vulnerable Section 27 of the Bill of Rights. This reads: ‘Health Care Services will be made available including reproductive health care.” For several years, and in conspicuous transgression of these provisions, HIV-positive pregnant women were denied access to specialised anti-retroviral drugs such as nevirapine. This denial is alleged to have led to their infection with HIV and the subsequent deaths of many thousands of babies.
Many other assaults and attempted muggings of the Constitution have taken place. Most of these occurred in open denials of provisions of the Bill of Rights, which guarantees in Section 26 ‘the provision of housing” to all citizens. In attacking these the government deployed the guerrilla tactics of inadequate controls, runaway corruption and sheer incompetence. This left millions of citizens to languish in squatter camps without even basic sanitation or water supplies.
Section 24 of the Bill of Rights guarantees an environment free of toxic chemicals, yet places such as the Caltex Oil Refinery in Tableview near Cape Town are allowed to continue to spew tonnes of poisonous gases and solids into the air, as does the oil refinery at Wentworth near Durban.
In response to such brazen wounding of the Constitution, government agencies have sat on their hands or made promises they had no intention of honouring. Millions survive in municipalities so corruptly and badly administered, people have to live in swamps of sewage, with their water supplies befouled. Diseases rage.
Section 34 of the Bill of Rights has been among the most abused. It guarantees access to the courts and legal process to all. What the Constitution did not expect was the pistol-whipping it got here. South African legal process functions in direct correlation to the fees being paid for it. It is called Incomes Based Justice.
Section 12 states that citizens shall be free of violence. The reality is that violence has become a way of life for those unable to afford expensive protection. The Constitution is a casualty of thousands of acts of violence daily. The poor thing simply couldn’t sustain such profound and relentless injury.
And so the hurt, disobedience and indifference have mounted. Minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, month by month. The South African Constitution is only 11 years old and already so bruised, sprained, punished, shell-shocked and bleeding that its collapse into a catastrophic coma-state was inevitable.
Asked for a prognosis, Dr Lumsden-Badenhorst repeated that he could make no sure predictions until the Constitution had made the first great step which was to stay alive. Once that was achieved and the Constitution was stabilised, he would give some estimates as to when it will be able to stand up and walk again. There will have to be a lengthy period of convalescence.
In closing off the press conference, Dr Lumsden–Badenhorst added the following reassurance: ‘But for the earnest and unsparing attention paid to the Constitution’s health by the well-meaning members of the Constitutional Court, the poor thing would not have made it this far. This brave panel of men and an occasional woman, have often undertaken the thankless task of defending the Constitution from the most vicious assaults made on it by those in search of selfish gains. They deserve our deepest gratitude.”
Twice-daily statements as to the continuing condition of the Constitution will be issued by CPAC.