Some politicians have “merged their private greed with their public obligations", said South Africa’s Deputy Judge President Dikgang Moseneke.
He was speaking at the launch of the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s new exhibition entitled My Constitution, which looks at the country’s post-apartheid constitution through the eyes of the youth.
Ninety-six young people hailing from each province in South Africa were consulted in the making of the exhibition over the last six months. The Foundation has curated the exhibit to mark the twentieth anniversary of the constitution and deliberately sought the opinions of the youth, most of whom were born in the year in which it was adopted. The launch was also addressed by Wandisa Phama, a candidate attorney from the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Denis Goldberg, one of the three surviving Rivonia Trialists sentenced to life with Nelson Mandela on 12 June 1964 also attended the launch. The other two, Ahmed Kathrada and Andrew Mlangeni were unable to be present.
Moseneke was directly addressing the youth in his speech which dealt with the successes as well as the challenges of the constitution which duty “above all” is to “hold the executive to account”.
Addressing the often repeated opinion that Nelson Mandela had ‘sold out’ the people of South Africa, a view he called “baseless”, Moseneke said South Africa’s true challenge was “not a paucity of vision or reimagined political and social values”.
The Judge, who served ten years on Robben Island as a young man said: “Our dream is deferred but only because those tasked with helping realise it have been fiddling.”
“They have jettisoned the centuries old ideals for freedom, inclusivity and justice for kleptocracy and patronage. They chose to forget that the public purse derives from our joint contributions and is sacrosanct. It may be disbursed only to advance public good.”
“They have forgotten that all public power derives from the people. And once given by the people all power must be deployed exclusively to the benefit of the people and no one else. Power must be used lawfully and only to create a better life for all.”
Quoting Franz Fanon, Justice Moseneke urged the youth “accomplish or betray” their “own mission”.
“Mr Mandela and other great freedom fighters have not sold out. They laid down beginnings that leave you with the clear mission to change your world within the values of a great Constitution."