Episode 25 - Dikgang Moseneke: From Revolution to Justice

In conversation with former Deputy Chief Justice, Dikgang Moseneke on the Culture of falling on your own sword. Chapters: 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:13 My Own Liberator, All Rise & a Revolutionary Who Became a Judge 00:00:46 Arrested at 15: How a Child Soldier Came to Challenge the Apartheid State 00:02:07 What 'Revolutionary' Means: Taking Society from Backwardness to Progress 00:03:39 The Goal Was Always Freedom: 'So That in My Adult Years I Don't Continue to Be a Slave' 00:04:35 Africanist Socialist Democracy: Moseneke's Ideological Formation as a Young PAC Leader 00:06:37 The Continuity Across Movements: Freedom Charter, Africanist Manifesto and the Common Vision 00:07:36 Robben Island as University: OR Tambo, Sobukwe and the Convergence of Liberation Thought 00:09:14 Revolutionary vs Careerist: On the Difference Between Entering Politics to Serve or to Rule 00:10:20 The Two-Stage Theory of Liberation: National Democratic Revolution and What Comes After 00:12:22 Writing the Interim Constitution: From Political Prisoner to Constitutional Architect 00:13:14 Mandela's Counsel and the Charge of Being 'Ahistorical' About 1994 00:15:20 Petitioning Robben Island: Returning to the Island to Advocate for Those Still Inside 00:16:13 Why Full Equality Could Not Be Installed in 1994: The Limits of the Negotiated Transition 00:18:23 The Ruling Question: Are We Governed by Elected Representatives or by the Constitution? 00:19:13 Constitutional Democracy vs Parliamentary Supremacy 00:21:29 The Danger of Untrammelled Parliamentary Power: How Colonial Democracies Entrenched Oppression 00:22:38 Legal Positivism and Its Failure: When Parliament Ruled Women Would Earn Two-Thirds of Men 00:24:13 Why the Bill of Rights Exists: To Protect Those Who Are Not Part of the Ruling Majority 00:27:13 Explaining the Bill of Rights Simply: Why No Majority — Even 90% — Can Trample These Laws 00:28:06 The Right to Dignity: Ubuntu, Historical Memory and the Foundation of the Constitutional Order 00:30:21 Capital Punishment for Palestinians: International Human Rights Law and the Right to Life 00:31:25 Gender-Based Violence and Constitutional Protection: The Right Not to Be Abused in Your Own Home 00:33:25 When People Don't Like Court Judgments: Improving Adjudication vs Attacking Judicial Independence 00:35:00 Is the Constitution Un-African? Moseneke Responds to Africanist Critics of the Constitutional Order 00:36:23 African Justice Traditions and Constitutional Rights: Go Qhuthla, the Right to Be Heard and Ubuntu Law 00:37:24 Dispute Resolution in African Custom 00:39:14 China, Socioeconomic Progress and Rights-Based Culture: Are They Compatible? 00:40:17 Political Power and Economic Power: The Constitution Does Not Hand Over Ownership of Wealth 00:42:51 The Sellout Accusation: Why Former Comrades Claim the Constitutional Settlement Betrayed the Revolution 00:43:15 No Serious Engagement: Moseneke on the Intellectual Shallowness of the Constitutional Critique 00:45:14 Freedom of Religion and Cultural Expression: Why the Constitution Deliberately Protects Private Life 00:46:25 The Constitution as an Equalising Instrument: What the Bill of Rights Is Actually Trying to Do 00:48:19 Judicial Oversight of Tenders and State Power: Why Courts Must Govern What Parliament Cannot Self-Regulate 00:49:27 Trump's Courts and South Africa's Courts: Why Powerful Leaders Hate Judicial Independence 00:51:16 Das Kapital and Adam Smith on Robben Island: Learning Political Economy Alongside Jacob Zuma 00:52:33 The Referee Analogy: You Cannot Organise a Society in a Democracy Without Independent Arbitration 00:54:31 Regulating Power When It Goes Out of Hand: The Constitutional Court's Core Function 00:55:17 Those Who Cry 'Activist Judges' Still Run to the Courts: The Hypocrisy Moseneke Has Observed 00:57:20 Unions, Workers and the Left: How Labour Movements Depend on the Very Courts They Criticise 00:58:017 Political Power Splintered: Why 30 Years After 1994 the Mission of Equality Remains Unfinished 01:00:15 Wrapping Up Economic Power: Calling 'Total Control of Capital' an Intellectually Lazy Analysis 01:01:14 Reflections on the Judiciary: Moseneke's Concerns About the State of the South African Magistracy 01:03:44 Colonial Courts and Black Courts: How the Apartheid Judicial System Was Designed to Divide 01:04:13 The Case for a Unified Court System 01:06:26 Magistrate Misconduct and the Quality Crisis in the Lower Courts 01:07:17 Integrating the Magistracy into a Single Judicial Structure: The International Model 01:09:21 People's Trust in Courts Aside from Ideology 01:10:16 Putting Moseneke to the Test 01:12:24 A Culture of Falling on Your Sword 01:12:35 I'm Not Guilty Until So Proven 01:13:40 Other Societies That Demand Accountability 01:15:15 He Fell on His Sword 01:16:39 I'm Going Nowhere — Prove It 01:17:27 Closing: Taking Political Power Is Vital *** Don't Forget To Share And Subscribe***