Helen Zille, the leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), on Friday challenged African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma to pledge his own allegiance to the Constitution, and to declare that loyalty to the Constitution is more important than loyalty to the ANC.
”I have a challenge for the new president of the ANC,” Zille wrote in her online newsletter, SA Today. ”Just as the government wishes to instil a culture of constitutionalism in our youth, Jacob Zuma should lead by example. I call upon him to state openly that South Africa’s Constitution is more important than any single political party, and that he pledges his loyalty first and foremost to protecting, upholding and promoting its values.”
Zille said that the president’s proposal for schoolchildren to recite a pledge of allegiance had generated a good deal of debate, and though many people were wary of such rhetoric, the DA believed that there was merit in a proposal for a pledge of allegiance to the values of the Constitution.
”We believe that such a pledge may help all our children feel that they are part of a larger national identity. More importantly, the pledge may go some way to instil the values of an open, tolerant and free society that are embodied in our Constitution,” she said.
But she pointed out that Zuma had in the past shown a disturbing disregard, on a number of occasions, for the rule of law and the Constitution. He said in 2006: ”The ANC is more important than even the Constitution of the country.”
And Zille added: ”The truth of the matter is this. For Jacob Zuma and the ANC, loyalty to the ruling party is prioritised over the values and principles of the Constitution. Indeed, when it is in the interests of the ANC to do so, it deliberately blurs the constitutional principle of the separation between party and state.”
The DA produced its own version of the school pledge.
It reads: ”We, the people of South Africa, pledge our allegiance to the Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights; lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law; improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.” — I-Net Bridge