New laws, old mindsets: Ginwala
Chris Khumalo
29 January 2004
Since 1994, Parliament has created 789 new laws aimed at "re-configuring" South African society. Despite this, says Speaker of the National Assembly Frene Ginwala, the national discourse remains confrontational rather than seeking out common ground.
Ginwala was speaking at a four-day international conference of jurists at Durban's International Convention Centre, where more than 250 jurists reviewed the gains made in the country in human rights and related fields since the advent of democracy in 1994.
The conference, organised by the Foundation For Human Rights and the South African Human Rights Commission, ended on Sunday.
In her address, Ginwala said mechanisms should be put in place to address the accountability of South Africa's judges, and to look at whether judges were only accountable to the Constitution.
Looking at how far the country had come in advancing the goals of the Constitution during the past decade, Ginwala
noted that while the country had one of the best constitutions in the world, the supreme law of the country was silent on reconciliation.
Reconciliation, she said, was one of the challenges South Africa was trying to grapple with.
Ginwala noted that since 1994, Parliament had created 789 new pieces of legislation aimed at "re-configuring South African society".
While much of the legislation introduced in the democratic dispensation was meant to transform, Ginwala said, the national discourse remained confrontational rather than seeking out common ground.
Ginwala said the country was still haunted by the legacy of apartheid, and there was an urgent need to address the psychological and material divisions of the past.
"Ideas and proposals are not evaluated on merit, but according to divisions of the past: race, political affiliation and social status. This is a great impediment to building a united nation", she said.
She said that while 10 years
was too short a period to effect the total overhaul of a country as damaged as South Africa was, few could have conceived the progress the country would make in developing the provisions contained in its new Constitution.
The table had been laid for the country to move from re-ordering itself to delivery, Ginwala said, and this was the challenge of the next 10 years.
"What we need to ask is, are we treading on the correct path; are we making progress? Yes, we are on the right path, yes, we've made progress - no, we have not gone far enough.
"But, notwithstanding all our difficulties, we are much further ahead than we could reasonably be expected be", Ginwala said.
"That is why I say we have good cause to celebrate 10 years of freedom."
Source: BuaNews
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