Klaus Eickelmann, Somerset West
Norman McFarlane’s contribution “In My Opinion” has become an absolute must in my weekly intake of political reading.
It has increasingly turned into a source of information which – as far as I am concerned – admirably succeeds in explaining otherwise complicated legal matters in a language which ordinary contemporaries understand. What a difference to some of the badly written stuff in many of South Africa’s main- stream dailies!
Congratulations to Norman McFarlane and may the Bolander continue to have the courage to publish articles like this.
Andries Havenga
Somerset West
Norman McFarlane’s opinion piece “1994 When the state was first captured” (Bolander November 9), refers.
Mr McFarlane makes an appropriate comment when he states that the last nail was hammered into the coffin of accountability when the Constitution was ratified in 1996.
The problem of accountability viz. controlling the actions of persons in positions of power is not new problem; an issue discussed by Plato in the Republic around 380 BC.
The Romans asked Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? “Who will guard the guards themselves?”
How does one enforce moral behavior on politicians when the enforcers (custodes) of law are corruptible?
A cursory reading of the Constitution reveals that the Constitution is flawed in that the accountability of the president and cabinet is dealt with in a superficial manner, as will appear from certain sections of the Constitution.
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