An Opinion Analysis published in The Star of 06 March 2023 on page 5

 Our Freedom Comes with Responsibility

On March 21, 1960, 69 black people were killed and 365 wounded when thousands of Africans marched peacefully to a police station in Sharpeville, Vereeneging, to surrender themselves to be arrested for not carrying passes. This was after PAC leader Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe and his members marched to the Orlando police station in Soweto to also surrender themselves to the police in a defiance campaign against pass laws.

The oppressive law was made by the whites-only members of parliament when it was sovereign over the courts and could pass any law without the participation of people on whom it was imposed. This was accentuated after the Sharpeville massacre.

Parliament unilaterally banned the PAC, the ANC and other organisations, and declared a state of emergency. In terms of the Suppression of Communism Act of 1951, anyone who became a member of a banned organisation or promoted its aims was arrested and imprisoned for 10 years. On 4 April 1960, in Regina v Robert Sobukwe and 22 others, Sobukwe was asked to plead. He replied: "We refuse to plead because our contention is that the law under which we are charged is a law made exclusively by the white man, specifically for the oppression and suppression of Africans."

In 1962, When Nelson Mandela was arrested for his underground activities in the ANC and Umkhonto WeSizwe, raised the similar contention when he appeared in court, saying: "I consider myself neither legally nor morally bound to obey laws made by a parliament in which I have no representation."

Fast forward to February 1990, when FW de Klerk unbanned the PAC, ANC and other organisations, released Mandela from prison and the first democratic elections were held in South Africa on April 27, 1994 when the interim constitution came into operation. Then on February 4, 1997, the Constitution that was adopted abolished parliamentary sovereignty and introduced the rule of law that made the Constitution supreme above any law.

This Constitution contains rights that were denied to the rightless and voteless generation. The most fundamental of them all, according to the first ground-breaking case, S v Makwanyane, that abolished death penalty, are the right to equality, human dignity and life.

However, some of these rights come with responsibilities. For instance, in 2016, it was not the rowdy behaviour of EFF members in Parliament that held former president Jacob Zuma accountable for Nkandla upgrades, but the EFF members in Parliament approaching the ConCourt to challenge him for refusing to pay back government money used for this, according to the "Secure in Comfort" report by then public protector Thuli Madonsela. The apex court held that the public protector's remedial actions were binding.

MP Vuyolethu Zungulu requested Parliament to initiate and appoint an independent panel of retired judges to investigate the Phala Phala scandal and determine if President Cyril Ramaphosa had a case to answer. The panel found that he must account for what transpired at his Phala Phala farm. It will be the outcome of the review of the report in court that holds the president accountable.