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February 1995
As advertised recently in the
newspapers, I am exercising the invitation for South African citizens to offer
comments on what they
consider should be entrenched in the new democratic
constitution for the new democratic South Africa which is currently being
drafted
by Theme Committees of the Constitutional Committee. I am a South
African by naturalization, of British birth.
My suggestions for
the new constitution are not comprehensive to the extent of including every
possible nuance, and there will be
aspects which, no doubt, will have eluded me,
and not be mentioned. My suggestions are listed as they occur to me and,
therefore,
they have not been assembled in any order of
priority.
Some of the ideas set out below are almost in a
constitutional format, but others are concepts which would require to be
formulated
into a constitutional clause - if accepted, of
course.
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1 The country should have a
single central government, headed by a Prime Minister, with a cabinet, and
supported by all the necessary
government departments headed by Ministers
appointed by the Prime Minister
· The government personalities should comprise elected representatives
of the citizens of South Africa, appointed from the majority
political party as
may be elected by the citizens of South Africa in free and fair elections. The
Prime minister is the Leader of
the majority political party
3 The government should consist of members of one party
only.
Governments of national unity are not a normal method of
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governing democracies, only in the event
of some exceptional situation requiring total unity, as occurred in Britain
during the Second
World War, and here in South Africa during its present
transition to full democracy
4 There will be political parties,
the elected members of whom shall make up the parliament, or general assembly,
whatever term is
finally decided
5 The members of parliament (or
general assembly) shall be elected at intervals not exceeding five (5) years, in
free and fair elections,
open to all citizens of South Africa
6
All government departments should be staffed by permanent civil servants,
properly trained and fully competent to do their jobs
- Nepotism
in the Civil Service shall be specifically debarred, as will the facility of
government ministers to make their own appointees
from friends and relatives,
with no account taken of the abilities of those individuals for the
posts
8 There shall be a non-executive Head of State,
appointed by the government of the day from South African citizens, selected for
their
special non-party services to the State
9 A Head of State
shall be appointed for a period of 5 years, their appointment overlapping
elections. A Head of State may be appointed
for a second term of office, but no
more
10 A Head of State may be removed from his or her post for
any conduct which is considered to be prejudicial to the interests of the
State,
or through mental deterioration or
bankruptcy
11 South Africa shall remain a Member of the
British Commonwealth of Nations, for as long as that institution shall exist, or
as it
may be metamorphosed to an equivalent institution in the
future
12 South African citizens will be permitted to accept
honours
that are bestowed by the Monarch of Great Britain
13
South Africa shall institute awards for those of its
citizens who have performed special functions for the good
of the nation
14 The constitution shall entrench the
requirement for a Bill of Rights for its citizens, which shall be in place
within five (5)
years of the general election held in April,
1994
15 The constitution shall permit equal rights for South
African citizens, irrespective of gender, race or creed. Thus "affirmative
action" is permitted providing that it does not unjustly penalise minority
races
16 South African citizens who, by their actions, operate in
a
manner which is detrimental to the interests of
the
country, and for the political benefit of another
country, shall be regarded as having carried out treasonable behaviour, to be
dealt
with by the courts
17 The country shall be divided into
Provinces, each one selected over a region that permits a reasonable equal
economic viability
to be achieved
18 Each province shall have its
own prime minister, who shall be the leader of the majority party of the
province, who will preside
over a Provincial Government
19 In
provinces where ethnic functions have been established by long precedent on a
tribal basis, nonetheless provinces may not appoint
any Provincial Head of
Province
20 The members of the provincial parliament shall be
elected at intervals not exceeding five (5) years, in free and fair elections,
open to all citizens of the respective provinces
21 A provincial
election may not take place within four months prior to a general election, nor
within one month following a general
election
- Provinces
shall be required to operate within terms of reference and general policies
which are established, from time to time, by
the central government. However,
account will be taken by the latter of the geography; economic viability;
population; main commercial,
farming and/or industrial infrastructure of a
province in establishing the provincial terms of
reference
23 South Africa shall have a non-racial
National Defence Force, manned by properly trained and disciplined personnel of
either gender.
The NDF shall comprise Army, Naval and Air Force
branches
24 The NDF will be loyal to the central government. No
province shall be permitted to operate its own defence force, under any guise
whatsoever
25 South Africa shall have Provincial Police Forces,
but the training of senior personnel shall be carried out only at national
police
colleges
26 There shall be a single non-racial National
Special Guard whose duties will be to deal with national non-defence
emergencies, eg
riots, etc
- There
will be a security service, with separate branches to deal with internal and
external security. The External Security Branch
will provide collaboration with
their equivalents in other countries with whom bilateral agreements have been
signed. The security
services shall be responsible to the Prime
Minister
28 No police force, the NDF or the security
forces, shall be
permitted to operate any means of torture to
elicit
confessions from known or suspected criminals, or
persons
suspected to be a security risk
29 Corruption at all
levels of society - in central and provincial governments; central and
provincial parliaments; the civil service;
national defence force; national
police force; commerce; industry - shall be identified and dealt with by the due
forces of the law
30 The civil legal system of South Africa shall
be reorganised
to make it come within the reach of all citizens on
grounds
of costs
31 The running of major criminal trials should be
carried out
in the presence of a jury - the judiciary system
32 A primary
and secondary education system shall be established to international standards
which gives equal opportunity to all South
African citizens and permanent
residents to achieve the highest educational standards, as is within the ability
of the individual
to achieve
33 A tertiary education system shall
be maintained, both at university and technikon levels. All universities shall
be encouraged
to strive for the highest standards of higher education in order
to achieve and maintain international recognition of their status
and that of
their graduates
34 Central Government shall recognise the
importance of science and technology, and provide the necessary financial
support for the
existing scientific and technological infrastructure to be
maintained, and improved
- Foreign
companies shall be encouraged to invest and set up companies in South Africa,
particularly those with high international status
in technology, scientific and
engineering. All efforts need to be made to ensure that such companies'
operations are not prejudiced
by inappropriate "affirmative
action"
36 An equitable system of censoring
publications, films and the content of TV programmes shall be adopted, with
particular attention
being given to all aspects of violence and child
pornography, and avoiding going overboard with extreme religious
viewpoints
- Names
of places, towns, cities, etc, with apartheid connotations shall be eliminated.
Other names, eg those of European origin, shall
not necessarily be eliminated
merely to suit the prejudices of a single racial group,
particularly
where the names are well known worldwide and/or commemorate personalities of
international standing whose activities
transcended purely parochial
interests
38 All South African citizens shall be entitled to a
high standard of medicare; education; jobs; a reasonable wage; a house to live
in; water supplies and adequate sewage disposal systems; electricity supplies;
equable justice system; the right to vote freely and
fairly; a
high
standard of transport; the protection of the
environment;
high standards in food preparation
39 News
broadcasts and newspapers shall be permitted to operate freely without fear
of interference from the government, providing they carry
out their activities
within the constraints of the law of South Africa
40 Activities
which result in potential serious health problems for the population shall be
closely monitored and controlled, eg smoking
and other addictive drugs and
poisonous emissions from industrial concerns
41 The activities of
international crime gangs shall be closely monitored, and they shall be
eliminated from the land as far as it
is practicable to do so
42
The activities of industry shall be closely monitored by a national organisation
in order to ensure that the environment is not
prejudiced in any
way
- Primary
energy supplies shall be reorientated to acknowledge the so-called greenhouse
effect, particularly important where the use
of coal for generating electricity
is concerned. In the long term alternative sources of primary energy need to be
developed, eg
hydro, nuclear, and thermonuclear in the future. Windpower and
solar power are useful primarily for local generating purposes, ie
they are
ideal for the many isolated areas in South Africa
- With
its extremely valuable natural resources of uranium, South Africa shall recover
this element and beneficiate it for use in the
nuclear industry, both at home
and worldwide. Its uranium resources, however, shall not knowingly be permitted
to be used for the
production of atom bombs of any sort anywhere in the
world
- South
Africa shall not permit its other extremely valuable natural mineral resources -
aluminium; rare earth metals; platinum-group
metals; chromium; manganese, etc,
to be exploited by foreign countries anywhere. All efforts shall be made to
encourage industry
to beneficiate these minerals prior to export, so that the
maximum economic gain may be achieved thereby
46 With
its special record of achieving a non-racial democracy South Africa has a high
moral head start for indoctrinating those foreign
nations who have an unwritten
record of suppressing and seriously prejudicing the survival of racial
minorities
47 South Africa shall operate a capitalist system,
with the minimum of state ownership of national services, and permitting
entrepreneurs
to establish their own businesses
48 The system
that has evolved in South Africa over the past decades of a few enormous
commercial and industrial conglomerates controlling
the economy of the country
should become one of the unacceptable facets of capitalism,
and
the unbundling of these concerns should be required
49 The matter of
land redistribution shall be carried out on an equable basis, and land shall not
be appropriated by the State for
redistribution without a fair market
compensation being offered to the present owner.
- No
individual, or groups of individuals, shall be permitted to occupy land on an ad
hoc basis, arbitrarily and without negotiation
or agreement of the owner,
whether private, commercial, industrial, the state or a province. No plans for
State appropriation may
be anticipated by any
individuals
51 Protest actions by groups of individuals,
whether union members or not, shall be controlled by legislation
in order to avoid severe damage to the economy of South Africa and the possible
withdrawal of foreign companies from South
Africa
- South
Africa shall operate a national social security system, whereby all its
population shall have a national pension scheme; free
schooling; assisted
further education; insurance for medicare and dental care. The provinces must
provide a minimum level of social
security services, as is established by the
central government, but they are free to provide additional benefits, which
shall be
transferable if the recipient moves to another
province
53 Central Government shall enter into
bilateral agreements with other countries operating social security schemes, on
the basis of
reciprocity of benefits, with particular attention being paid to
those countries operating national pension schemes
- No
individual shall gain unjust benefit from pension schemes which operate to the
detriment of the population in general. Back years
bought for the purpose of
enhancing pensions at retirement shall require appropriate premiums to be made
in order to cover the eventual
cost of paying the increased
pensions
- Any
proposed development in environmentally sensitive areas must be subject to a
full environmental management assessment, with participation
of the local
population. Any proposed residential or commercial development which obstructs
the view from any such previous development
shall be subject to the strictest
planning scrutiny
- The
main local government areas into which the provinces have been divided should be
given a generic name ("county" in the UK, for
example), preferably of non-ethnic
origin, common throughout all provinces. (The names of these "counties",
"regions" or whatever
may, however, be appropriate to local ethnic
origins)
57 Names of areas, towns, cities, etc, shall
not be changed to those of ethnic origin merely for the sake of doing so, as
this would
be interpreted abroad as a demonstration of
inflexible black
domination. This applies particularly to names that are known internationally.
Also, any new names proposed must
be chosen with great circumspection, taking
into account the fact that communications, worldwide, are now virtually
instantaneous.
Thus the Chinese must be quite curious about the renaming of the
PWV province to "Gauteng", although obviously something had to
be done about
“PWV” and I understand that "Gauteng" has a long local ethnic
association. But, with due respect, names
should avoid too strong a foreign
connotation, no matter how much it was not intended. We could not have done
better than if the
Chinese had put out an international competition to rename
one of their provinces - South Africa would undoubtedly have won the
competition!
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The
items listed above are hardly exhaustive. But one item I have not dealt with
which obviously will have to be dealt with in the
constitution is the question
of tribal kings and chieftains. I am not familiar enough with the historical
background to be able
to offer any sensible comment - one cannot squash the
matter like running a motor roller over a newly tarmacced road
surface.
Yours faithfully,
R M
Longden-Thurgood
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