part of no part

* This article first appeared in the Saturday Star. People are fallible, make mistakes, are deceived and generally hold varied levels of moral values.  It is for this very reason that humankind has over the course of its evolution developed systems of checks and balances to ensure that no single individual, or party for that matter, is allowed to wield unfettered power.   Arising from these struggles, there emerged a broad consensus in the world on the need for states to be underpinned by constitutions which broadly speaking creates an illusion of a social contract. This social contract is then underpinned by a voting system which creates a political class who are delegated through this vote to exercise power over their daily lives and who gain legitimacy through the process of a democratic vote. That we (as global humanity) have not been very successful at this should not necessarily deter us. There are some successes in this regard though none of the succ...

* This Article first appeared in the Star Newspaper on 16 March 2016 Adopted in 1996, after a tumultuous struggle against the oppressive and exploitative systems of Colonialism and Apartheid, the South African Constitution, presented a new template on which the development of a fundamentally more equal society could be built.    Section 1 of the Constitution states that the Republic of South Africa is one, sovereign, democratic state  founded  on  the  values  of  inter  alia  human  dignity,  the  achievement of  equality and  the advancement of human rights and freedoms and these are enshrined in the Bill of Rights. The rights in the Bill of Rights form the cornerstone of our democracy and an obligation is placed on the state to respect, protect, promote and fulfil these rights. The State, in accordance with its obligations undertook to reform the mining landscape and in 2002 through the Mineral...