Page 10 - Constitutional Model for a Democratic South Africa By Prof Vuyisle Dlova

paragraphs or articles, the same document sets out to cancel out or demolish the freedoms
recited, one by one.

The essential question is whether those rights do take precedence over any other law,
including statutory law, and how those institutions charged with the protection of those
freedoms, in particular the judiciary, are enabled to discharge their duties impartially and
without fear or intimidation of a hostile government press, radio etc.

The PAC and ANC have thus far committed themselves to the protection of those individual
rights but the mechanism of ensuring their protection has not been elaborated upon.

Nationalities

At the time of the European conquest of the Southern tip of Africa, the geographical area that
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we call South Africa today was populated by numerous nationalities of African descent.
These people lived independently of each other and spoke different, though related
languages. As neighbours they traded, intermarried and at times, went to war against each
other.

Many factors, mostly associated with the fact of conquest or subjugation itself, have
weakened and to a great part destroyed, the pre-colonial institutions around which they
organised their social, economic and political life. These nationalities, however, have
survived the long years of colonialism and have retained some of their distinctive features,
notably language, but also local or tribal customs especially in the rural areas. They also
identify themselves with the historical lands and the pastures on which their forebears
ploughed and grazed their stock before the advent of colonialism. The process of
urbanisation has undoubtedly helped to detribalise these communities. Colonial
dispossession and the ensuing forced removals further scattered members of these
nationalities and often reconstituted them on new lines. The existence of two nationally
organised movements, PAC and ANC, whose differences are anything but tribal or regional,
must also be regarded as an important unifying factor.

However on the negative side, it should be conceded that the process of balkanisation of
South Africa that started with the Land Act of 1913 and culminated in the granting of mock
independence, first to the Transkei in October 1976, on nationality lines, did to a limited scale,
rekindle the spirit of nationality or tribe: this may partly explain the relative success of Mr
Buthelezi in building a regionally based and tribally based organisation, Inkatha Ye Nkululeko.
The fact that the PAC and the ANC have had to operate underground for so long, must also
affect their ability to ensure that recruitment of their membership and military personnel is
fairly representative of all regions and is also balanced as between the countryside and the
urban areas. Good intentions notwithstanding, those areas and nationalities that have been
more responsive to the call to arms will naturally be more represented than others in future
organs of state, including the armed forces. Such an imbalance, if not corrected, may prove a
destabilising factor.

For the benefit of the reader who is not familiar with the nationality constitution of the South
African or Azanian people and their geographic spread over the country, the following are the
major nationalities: Pedi, Tswana, Ndebele, Swazi, Shangane and Venda, mainly in the
Transvaal and Northern Natal; Basotho mostly situated in the Orange Free State and the Vaal
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triangle; Khoi, San and Xhosa people, in the Cape; and the Zulu people, in the Natal.