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Getting to grips with the Constitution and what it stands for

Rhodes University staff and students celebrate Constitution Week from 21 – 25 September aimed at increasing awareness of the Constitution, the rights it protects and the structures it creates to protect and promote these rights.

The Constitutional Court is South Africa’s highest court in all matters concerning the Constitution, and its judges are the ultimate guardians of South Africa’s new culture of human rights and democracy.

“By celebrating the Constitutional week we aim to encourage greater engagement by our student body (and the broader community) with the spirit and ethos of the Constitution so as to further social justice as espoused by our constitutional project,” said Larissa Klazinga, 中国足彩网 Officer.

Conduct, relationships and responsibilities at Rhodes are guided by the values of the South African Constitution and Bill of Rights – respect for human dignity, human rights, equality, non-sexism and non-racialism. As a community which ascribes to and lives by these values, Rhodes University’s Law Faculty in partnership with the Dean of Students Office has planned a programme of events intended to highlight current debates relating to Constitutional issues.

Several interesting guest speakers will engage Rhodes students and staff, as well as members of the public, in thought-provoking discussions around Constitutional matters.

The Honourable Judge Johan Froneman will deliver the keynote address on Monday 21 September entitled “Your Role in Upholding the Constitution”. Judge Froneman, and Eastern Cape Hight Court Judge, completed his BA LLB in 1977 and practiced at an advocate from 1978 till 1994, becoming senior counsel in 1990. He has been a Judge in the Eastern Cape High Court since 1994, a Deputy Judge President in the Labour Appeal Court from 1996 to 1999 and he acted for two terms in the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2000.

One of his landmark decisions allowed four disabled people to bring a class action on behalf of about 100 000 other disabled people whose grants were unilaterally cut by the Eastern Cape authorities. Froneman found that the grants of the individual applicants were unlawfully stopped in violation of their constitutional rights and ordered that they be reinstated and that arrears be paid. His judgment paved the way for thousands of disabled people who could not ?afford legal representation to secure justice for themselves.

Another highlight is the Vice-Chancellor’s Forum which will convene on Tuesday (22 September) on the topic “How Healthy is our Constitutional Democracy?” Professor Steven Friedman and Ms Nomboniso Gasa are the invited discussants.

Steven Friedman is Director of the Centre of the Study of Democracy at Rhodes and the University of Johannesburg. He is a political scientist who has specialised in the study of democracy. He is the author of Building Tomorrow Today, a study of the South African trade-union movement and the implications of its growth for democracy, and the editor of The Long Journey and The Small Miracle (with Doreen Atkinson), which presented the outcome of two research projects on the South African transition. He is currently studying the role of citizen action in strengthening and sustaining democracy, with a particular focus on the activism of people living with HIV and AIDS.

Nomboniso Gasa, former chair of the Commission for Gender Equality, is a lifelong political activist and gender research analyst, who’s first detention occurred during apartheid at age 14 in the Western Cape. Since that time, she has tirelessly worked on human rights for women and feminism in Africa. Her current research interests include the de/constructions of cultural identities, masculinities, intersections of unequal patriarchal power relations with gender and other social inequalities. Gasa has written and published on gender equality issues, African feminism and related issues. She has also done work on political transition in Nigeria and edited Democracy in Nigeria: Continuing Dialogues for Nation-building. Her current focus is on the Making of a Man in Xhosa Society, which is a historic and feminist critique of cultural practice and its continued and changing meanings.

On Wednesday a Strategic Litigation and Law Reform Workshop on Muslim Marriage will be presented by Cherith Sanger of the Women’s Legal Centre in Cape Town. Helen Kruuse, a lecturer in law at Rhodes will participate as a discusant.

A School’s Human Rights Debating Day coordinated by the Rhodes Legal Activism and Debating Society will see learners from schools around Grahamstown participate in a day’s programme of debating around issues relating to the constitution.

Other events planned for the week include: a Warden’s Discussion Group on When the Law Happens to Drunk/Drugged Students facilitated by staff of the Legal Aid Clinic; a film screening of the movie A Reasonable Man; a Legal Aid Clinic Street Law Right’s Workshop; and a Public Interest Litigation and Acess to Justice Workshop presented by Cherith Sanger and discussant Dr Rosaan Kruger of Rhodes Law Department.

In the spirit of democracy and the values enshrined in our Constitution, all events for the week are open to the public as Rhodes hopes to encourage participation and active engagement around the issues on the programme from all interested members of the community.

Photo Caption: Nomboniso Gasa, former chair of the Commission for Gender Equality