Thank you for the free publicity given to me by Serjeant at the Bar (“Who will rule on the judges versus the Constitution?”, March 1). I am impatient for my interview with the Judicial Service Commission.
There are indeed fundamental questions about decisions taken by the Constitutional Court that need to be debated, not only in the commission but also in the media.
Another issue that also needs to be raised is why the commission continues to recommend candidates who believe that the Constitution is to be interpreted as if judicial fiat can succeed where every socialist revolution has failed (at huge cost to millions of people).
Among the questions I would like to raise is this: Is South Africa doomed to be a failed state because judges in high places, cheered on by commentators such as Serjeant, insist on interpreting the Constitution in the way that they do?
If this country is to succeed we cannot go on interpreting the Constitution in defiance of economic laws and the constitutional principles that developed the modern world. We can achieve the socioeconomic rights enshrined in our Constitution by applying the national development plan. The economics of that plan should infuse our jurisprudence, rather than the dubious notions that I have criticised.
History will be the final judge of who is right. – Nigel Willis, Johannesburg