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Seth Abrahams
21 December 1994
I welcome and thank you
for the opportunity to make suggestions to the Committees concerned with drawing
up of a new Constitution
. When I attempted to send unsolicited comments to the
Kempton Park continuation of Codessa my registered letter was redirected to
a
totally different address and then returned to me unopened . I then sent the
letter to the Director General of Justice together
with a hand written copy of
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address . Perhaps some one there read and considered
Lincoln's Address -otherwise
you would not be inviting comments from the general
public and I would not be writing this letter to you
Committee
III
Provincial System & Local Government
A The Founding
Fathers of the American Constitution used the Devolution of Powers as a
means to assure the continuation of Democracy . I would urge the Honourable
Members of the Constitutional Assembly to grant
all 9 Regions that
comprise the United Provinces of South Africa such Provincial powers
as will keep KwaZulu-Natal happy reserving all powers not allocated
to the People and not to put SA in the position of Canada vis~a-vis Quebec the
"friendly scenario
" or G-d forbid the tragedy of the Balkans .
B .
Although they did not exercise the option to become the 5th Province of the
Union of South Africa if you look at the Original
Constitution of the Union of
South Africa you will find that provision was made for Zimbabwe - then called
Rhodesia - to join the
Union within a certain time frame . I would request that
a similar clause be considered for the former Protectorates and the" front
line
states . "
C . If these suggestions are taken favourably a more federal
and less unitary system would suggest that KwaZulu-Natal should be asked
to
formulate the basic nature of devolution of power for discussion . In other
words let the starting point be the Kwa-Zulu Natal
proposals .
TO SUM UP
: Invite KwaZulu-Natal to draft the Provincial Constitutions and use that as the
starting point . Grant the same powers
to the other 8 Regions as is agreed with
Kwa-Zulu Natal ; Provide a mechanism such as the Independant Electoral
Commission to monitor
popular support for accession to the United Provinces in
and by friendly neighbours
Committee VI
Public
Administration
I would refer the Honourable the Members of the
Committee
VI.1 on Public Administration to an annual private
British
Publication called Whittaker's Almanack .
Once a year every
Government Post in the British Isles is decribed with the Name of each
incumbent and the salary or salary range if this is not fixed
of office . south
Africa should emulate this practice and not only that but should do so for all
the parastatals from the Abalone Board to the Zebra Control Board without
exception . I have not counted ,but when the Judge Advocate General was
first
appointed he said that there were over 500 .
The Practice of the
Government Printer issuing a Bound Volume of the Statutes of the Republic of
South Africa each year should be
reinstituted .
A copy of extracts in two
formats is enclosed
With kind regards and best wishes
Kindly acknowledge
receipt
Seth G Abrahams .
[FOR EXTRACTS, REFER TO:
WHITTAKER'S
ALMANAC : GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS AND PUBLIC OFFICES]
Seth
Abrahams
27 December 1994
I welcome and thank you for
the opportunity to make suggestions to the Committees concerned with drawing up
of a new Constitution
. When I attempted to send unsolicited comments to the
Kempton Park continuation of Codessa my registered letter was redirected to
a
totally different address and then returned to me unopened . I then sent the
letter to the Director General of Justice together
with a hand written copy of
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address . Perhaps some one there read and considered
Lincoln's Address -otherwise
you would not be inviting comments from the general
public and I would not be writing this letter to you
Committee on
Judiciary
Structure of Law Courts
According to the Sheva
Mitzvoth Bnei Noach - the Universal Laws of mankind and the Foundation of
Civilisation there is a duty on all
the Nations of the World to establish Courts
of Justice .
It goes without saying that the Law Courts should be open to
the poor as well as the rich but unfortunately this is not so : In the
present
system of Justice which involves the award of costs to the
unsuccesful party ( and not only in vexatious matters ) many people - and not
only the poor - are preclu@e from having access
to the Law Courts because an
award of Costs - even on a party to party basis could be ruinous . In fact with
legal aid the poor may
have
greater rights of access to the Courts than the
middle class
In the past the cry of champerty has precluded all but the
most dedicated ambulance chasers from financing litigation
Has not the
time come for a full review of the system of legal charges and costs awarded and
taxed more particularly a full enquiry
into legal costs in RSA and elsewhere,
with a view to restructuing the system ; a full enquiry into legal systems that
permit lawyers
to charge a per centage of the amount claimed in lieu of
fees,with a view to restructuring a full enquiry into class actions
elsewhere,with
a view to permitting this type of law suit or award
the
structure of the Judicial System not dependant on first seeing to the needs
of the citizens in regard to Legal Aid Costs Class Actions Contingent fees
and Basic Legal Education and is it not premature top embark on the
restucturing of the Courts before these needs have been addressed
.
In so far as the Committee on the structure and heirachy of the Courts
is concerned would not South Africa be better served with one
Supreme
Court one Appelate Division , Provincial and Local Divisions as before and
not a separate Constitutional Court : If the members of the
Constitutional Assembly Committee only wants Constitutional issues tried before
a panel of specially selected Judges of Appeal is not the answer to give
those Judges Letters Patent appointing them as Acting Judges and or
Permanent Judges to hear Constitutional cases rather than creating a
separate Constitutional Court-.
At present a Magistrate is
precluded from ruling on Ultra Vires . once it is recognised that " Justice
delayed is Justice denied "
would not the interests of Citizens be better served
to have cases dealt with as soon as possible ?
By giving an automatic
right of appeal to all constitutional cases would it not be safe to
allow all judicial officers ( including Magistrates ) to rule on Constitutional
matters
With kind regards and best wishes
Kindly acknowledge
receipt
Seth G Abrahams
Advocate of the Supreme Court of South
Africa
Member of the Johannesburg Bar 1962 - 1974
Seth
Abrahams
21 December 1994
I welcome and thank you for the
opportunity to make suggestions to the Committees concerned with drawing up of a
new Constitution
. When I attempted to send unsolicited comments to the Kempton
Park continuation of Codessa my registered letter was redirected to
a totally
different address and then returned to me unopened . I then sent the letter to
the Director General of Justice together
with a hand written copy of Lincoln's
Gettysburg Address . Perhaps some one there read and considered Lincoln's
Address -otherwise
you would not be inviting comments from the general public
and I would not be writing this letter to you
Committee
I
Democracy
If you read the Midrash you will see that there was no
State more Democratic than the Biblical City of Sodom and yet that City State
was wiped off the face of the earth . Democracy is simply not
enough I
ROME BASIC MISUNDERSTANDINGS OF " DEMOCRACY
I am enclosing a copy of the the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and the African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights . PLEASE
DO NOT SAY THAT I
HAVE SENT THIS TO THE INCORRECT COMMITTEE AND THAT THIS IS FOR COMMITTEE IV ?
This submission is not about Entitlement or a Bill of
Rights The basic misunderstanding is that there cannot @e a right without a
corresponding obligation or duty . Its simple book keeping .
Every debit has a
corresponding and equal credit Committee IV is concerned with Rights and my
respectful submission to you is about
Responsibilities : Please ensure
that the New Constitution clearly states that there cannot be any human and
people rights without the corresponding
obligations .
I now return to
consider the City of Sodom . If you read the Midrash you will see that Sodom was
scrupulous to keep the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights ( UDHR as well as
the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights ACHPR ) . So why was it
destroyed and
why do I say that Democracy is not enough ?
THE ANSWER IS
QUITE SIMPLE . CERTAIN THINGS WERE TAKEN FOR GRANTED AND THESE MATTERS CANNOT BE
TAKEN FOR GRANTED . THESE MATTERS DO
NOT FIGURE IN THE UDHR AND/OR ACHPR . AND
THESE MATTERS ARE FUNDAMENTAL TO DEMOCRACY AND THE CHARACTER OF THE
STATE
This was no t the case in SODOM NAZI GERMANY OR THE
USSR
LET US LOOK AT THE FOUR.BASIC LAWS OF MANKIND - AND YOU WILL
NOT FIND
THEM IN THE UDHR OR THE ACHPR - ALTHOUGH THE
CONTINUED EXISTENCE OF SOCIETY
IS DEPENDANT ON THEM
> To establish Courts of Justice ;
and that means for the poor as
well as for the Rich does it not?
5 To prohibit and punish
Homocide
and is it not a fact that more people have died in traffic
accidents since 1990 than have perished in political violence I read in
the
newspaper that in New Zeeland a man recently was sentenced to a long term in
prison because although he knew that he was HIV
positive he did not disclose the
fact to a consenting partner and she then tested HIV positive AIDS STD and HIV
are the major Health
issues of our time
> To prohibit and to punish
Sexual Immorality viz Incest Adultery Sodomy Bestiality and Rape
;
Promiscuity is the vector of HIV and STD and pornography provides the
social and cultural justification for harlotry. - the unpaid
variety as well as
the paid species AND LEWD BEHAVIOUR AND PORNOGRAPHY ARE PROTECTED BY ARTICLE 19
OF UDHR 1 IS THAT NOT CORRECT
" Article 19
Everyone has the right to
freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and
to seek receive and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers " Please note that the figures for
the incidence of HIV in Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu are given as 4 % and 8 %
respectively and we are told that the doubling time is about
14
months
Artice 17.3 to 18 of the ACHPR reads as follows :-
3 . The
promotion and protection of morals and traditional values recognised by the
community shall be the duty of the State .
I . The family shall be the
natural unit and basis of society It shall be protected by the State which shall
take care of its physical
and moral health .
2 . The State shall have the
duty to assist the family which is the custodian of morals and traditional
values recognised by the community
The Colour Bar - which was the
foundation of Apartheid was introduced into South Africa by the United Kingdom
in 1820 ‑There
was and is no apartheid in the other Dutch Overseas
Territories . It is a serious error to refer to 300 years of apartheid . The
colour bar was entrenched in South Africa in 1910 and the family life of the
African peoples has suffered without the shadow of doubt
since then . THE
PROTECTION OF FAMILY LIFE SHOULD BE GRANTED A HIGH PRIORITY IN THE
DELIBERATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON DEMOCRACY AND THE CHARACTER OF THE STATE . In
my respectful
submission this should be done by the assertion of the Universal
Commandments of Man . Politicians and Civil Servants - however capable
‑do
a tremendous disservice to the country by engaging in sexual improprieties
because they are role models as well as
being polititians and civil
servants > To prohibit and to punish Theft ;
And Honourable Members of the
Constitutional Assembly Committee on Democracy and the Character of the State
can you tell me how many
cases of theft were reported in the Republic of South
Africa during the period I January 1994 to 31 December 1994 ; the number of
persons arrested during this period ; the number of persons arraigned during
this period and the nature of the charges ; the number
of persons convicted
during this period and the nature of the offences and the sentences imposed ;
the number of succesful appeals
against conviction and/or sentance that were
upheld during this period and the nature of the offences and sentences that were
set
aside or reduced ; the number of persons serving prison sentences during
this period ;and the nature of the offences and sentences
; the names of persons
released from prison prior to the expiry of the terms of imprisonment imposed
the nature of the offences for
which they were
convicted and the extent and grounds of the remission
the number of complaints made during this period , the number
of dockets opened and complaints investigated during this
period the number of cases solved during this period ;the
number of
unsolved cases carried forward to the following year ; and the number of
unsolved cases being closed during this period
: what were the sums of money
were involved ; how did these figures compare to claims made to Insurance
comanies ;what the break
down was by Province Metropolitan region and Police
District ;How this information compared to the previous year ?
Where is
the " transparency " in Government if these figures are not timeously and
regularly compiled and reported to Parliament Provincial
Assemlies and the
public . This very morning I was talking to to an Insurance assessor and he told
me that to support a R 400 a day
drug habit an addict may break into two houses
a day . I asked him " How do you solve the matter " he replied " I don't know
but
in Taiwan they solved it by executing the first 20 or so drug dealers caught
it In Holland I read in the Citizen today that they
are now making drugs
available to drug addicts free of charge provided they attend drug
cessation clinics : There is thus no need for them to steal if the Dept of
Health provides them with free
drugs .
TO SUM UP : Democracy is of value
provided Licence is not mistaken for Liberty and I would respectfully call on
this Committee to
make this very clear at least in the PREAMBLE to the
New Constitution . The Constitution should also Mandate that the Department of
Justice reports to Parliament, Province and
Metropolitan and Regional Councils
on Crime figures during the previous year , along the lines of my enquiry on
theft above annually and that the State President should give his " State
of the Nation " address after these figures have been tabled and made available
to the Public .
THIS IS THE MEASURE OF THE PRECONDITIONS FOR DEMOCRACY
IN MY SUBMISSION .
Kindly acknowledge receipt
Seth G
Abrahams
Seth Abrahams
21 December 1994
Committee
VI
Public Administration
I would refer the Honourable the Members of
the Committee
VI.1 on Public Administration to an annual private
British
Publication called Whittaker's Almanack '
Once a year every
Government Post in the British Isles is decribed with the Name of each incumbent
and the salary or salary range
if this is not fixed of office . South Africa
should emulate this practice and not only that but should do so for all the
parastatals from the Abalone Board to the Zebra Control Board without
exception . I have not counted ,but when the Judge Advocate General was
first
appointed he said that there were over 500 .
The Practice of the
Government Printer issuing a Bound Volume of the Statutes of the Republic of
South Africa each year should be
reinstituted .
A copy of extracts in two
formats is enclosed *
With kind regards and best wishes
Kindly acknowledge
receipt
Seth G Abrahams .
[* FOR EXTRACTS, REFER TO
WHITTAKER'S ALMANAC : GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC OFFICES]
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