South Africa: Constitutional Assembly Resources

30 January 1995

THE NEW CONSTITUTION

My ideas on some aspects of the new constitution are as follows:

Theme Committee One: Democracy -

One man one vote is not the answer. Taken globally, for example, the result of one man one vote would be that we'd all be ruled by the Chinese! It would be reasonable to expect that those who participate the most in the political, economic or social areas of the country are given the most say. Perhaps educational criteria could be used in a qualified franchise. This would also encourage education.

Theme Committee Three: Local Government -

Given the history of expensive and inefficient local government as much as possible of local government and administration should be run by private enterprise, with only a core of locally elected officials.

Theme Committee Four: Bill of Rights -

The fundamental right is the right to life. Abortion and active euthanasia are both murder and deny this fundamental right to life. Another right is the right of everybody to be educated in their own mother tongue. Freedom of religion is another basic right.

Theme Committee Six: Public Administration -

My comment on Theme Committee Three is also relevant here.




D. Boyd