We’re pausing to assess the lawmaking of the past 2 decades
THERE were many events last week to mark the day 60 years ago when about 20 000 women of all races converged at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
They went there to personally let JG Strijdom, prime minister of the apartheid-era National Party government, know that by wanting to strike the women he had struck a rock.
Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, along with Lilian Ngoyi, Rahima Moosa and Helen Joseph, was one of the leaders of the march. Born in Port Elizabeth and an active trade unionist, she was just 18 at the time.
The march showed resilience and ingenuity in the fight against the pass laws which all aimed at controlling and monitoring the movement of Africans older than 16. People had to produce the
dompas at any time when a state official ordered them to do so – or face arrest.
The pass laws were sharpened over the years by successive oppressive governments and reached their zenith of refinement in the incongruously named Natives Abolition of Passes and Co-ordination of Documents Act in 1952. This act, in an amendment in 1956, extended the pass laws to women.
The pass laws and other similar discriminatory and oppressive laws have gone now and in their place are more than 1 000 new laws aimed at supporting our democracy. Our democratic state, which came into being with our first non-racial democratic election in April 1994, is based in the values of human dignity; human rights; equality and freedoms; non-racialism and non-sexism; and supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law.
It is all very well to pass laws and to have facilitated public participation on their making. But what effect have these laws had on our lives and our aim of building a new society?
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the constitution and its Bill of Rights and the 22nd anniversary of our first non-racial and democratic election. It is a most appropriate moment to pause and assess the lawmaking of the past two decades which have aimed to reshape our apartheid-era and colonial society into the one envisaged in the constitution. The High Level Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and the Acceleration of Fundamental Change has been established to do just that.
The Speakers’ Forum, which is a structure of the South African Parliament and the provincial legislatures, appointed the panel. It has been tasked with, among others, assessing the implementation, since 1994, of key laws, identifying gaps and proposing necessary interventions and recommendations.
The panel comprises a diverse range of people. As you can see from the list at the end of this column, they bring a wide range of experiences to the work before us. However, important though these experiences are, for the panel to fulfil its task properly, it must consult widely throughout the country – with academics and experts in particular fields, with members of Parliament and the Provincial Legislatures about their oversight work and with a cross section of South Africans
about their experiences of our laws.
To get feedback from as many people as possible, we have called for written submissions – the deadline for those is August 20 – and will be holding public hearings in all provinces.
We want to hear from you what your
experience has been of the laws passed during our democracy. Have they made life better and how? Have there been problems with how the laws have been applied and, if so, what are these problems? Are there gaps in the laws that should be filled?
Written submissions should be posted to PO Box 2164, Cape Town, 8000, for the attention of Leanne Morrison or e-mailed to highlevelpanel@parliament.gov.za.
We are also about to start a series of public hearings in all nine provinces. The first is tomorrow and on Wednesday in East London. Please check the media for details of hearings in the remaining eight provinces. These will become available closer to the time when they will be held.
The August 9, 1956 women’s anti-pass march vividly highlighted the specific contribution of women in our struggle for freedom.
Since 1994, women have increasingly taken their place in top positions of the government and to a lesser extent, the private sector of our country.
Gender equality has not yet been entrenched, however. So, continuing to strive to achieve this is the most meaningful tribute we can pay to the women of all races whose songs of protest made Strijdom flee his office that Thursday, 60 years ago.
Kgalema Motlanthe is chairman of the High Level Panel on Assessment of Key Legislation and Acceleration of Fundamental Change