by Jean-Jacques Cornish

South Africa’s courts have been a constant in the country’s hazardous path through wicked colonization, cruel apartheid and the vagaries of democracy.

So it is both inevitable and desirable that they should be called upon to rule on events in the biggest crisis the country has faced since the Second World War 75 years ago.

Government has assumed unprecedented powers to deal with the COVID 19 pandemic.

These have had an immediate impact on the rights of South Africans guaranteed in their Constitution that is justifiably the envy of most of the world.

They will also have an unfathomable long term impact on the socio-economic life of South Africa that is euphemistically referred to as challenging.

The first legal foray is being launched by British American Tobacco South Africa and the Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association.

They argue that the National Coronavirus Command Council has taken measures that fly in the face of individuals right  to choose and are unnecessarily injurious to the exchequer. They further argue that the the NCCC is suffocating the country’s socio economic prospects.

Government counters that the prevention of tobacco and alcohol sales during the lockdown are justified on purely health grounds.

They say these steps have been emulated by Mexico Hong Kong and Greenland.

The second matter to come before the courts is challenging the  constitutional mandate  and the power of NCCC.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is being asked to explain the source of the power he has wielded delegating executive functions to a body that includes some but not all of his Cabinet.

To this, government will cite Constitutional Court President Arthur Chaskalson 1995 ruling outlawing capital punishment.

Judge Chaskalson said that the rights to life and dignity are the most important of them all. In make any ruling on human rights, these have to be placed above all else.

Ramaphosa argues that regulations put in place to combat COVID 19 are founded on government’s commitment to life and dignity.

In extreme circumstances, he holds, it is necessary to put a temporary restriction on other rights like the freedom of choice, movement and association.

Education is at the root of the third legal challenge.

The Tebelia Institute for Leadership, Education, Governance and Training 

and the Africa Institute on Human Rights and Constitutional Litigation are challenging the opening of schools.

They say government cannot keep parents at home to prevent the spread of COVID 19 while sending innocent children to school to save the academic year.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga  says, in effect, it is still up in the air.

She acknowledges that her department has indicated children could be returning to school as early as this week.

However, she says it is only the “education sector” not necessarily the schools themselves that  have opened up today.

As Tom Wolfe said in Bonfire of the Vanities, we are truly now in the web of the law.

The post The battle against COVID 19 caught in the web of the law appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

According to the authority closely observing passenger place accidents the DRC is number five on the list of countries with the most crashes.

The two crashes in Goma and Kole left 35 people dead in the DRC which has seen the most passenger plane accidents in Africa since 1945.

The Aviation Safety Network puts this down to the size of the country, its poor road network necessitating aviation access, weak regulation and the use of obsolete aircraft.

The body lists the United States as the country with the most airline accidents this past decade followed by Russia, Canada, Mexico, Indonesia and then the DRC.

The post Congo is deadliest place in Africa to fly appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

 Of course King Mohamed VI and his Moroccan officials will say that their record-breaking five-time losing quest to host the football World Cup has nothing to do with his father annexing the Western Sahara 42 years ago.

They would, wouldn’t they?

The late King Hassan refused to acknowledge that his illegal occupation of the former Spanish colony put Morocco beyond the pale of international respectability.

He jailed any of his subjects who dared even to suggest this.

Whatever he says about presiding over a more liberal system, his successor , known as M6, has enforced this official myopia with equal vigour and cruelty.

I recall attending an editorial conference of a so-called independent Moroccan newspaper.

“Could you possibly conceive of ever publishing the views of a respected academic arguing for granting the Saharawi people self-determination?” I asked.

The l meeting ended right there as the terrified editor and journalists left the room.

I am waiting to see how the Moroccan media explains the harsh reality that the country’s  defiance of international opinion caused no fewer than 11 African countries – nearly a fifth of the  continent – to vote against the kingdom’s bid when FIFA took the decision in Moscow yesterday about who should host the 2026 football World Cup. 

South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe were open about rejecting the last colonial vestige in Africa and their  support for the occupied Saharawi people.

Others said it was a straightforward business decision: the so-called united bid by the United States, Canada and Mexico guarantee a profit of $11 billion for FIFA. That is money that will trickle down to them.

Morocco indicated  it would make $5 billion, which is more than Brazil earned from its 2014 World Cup and certainly more than South Africa raked for World Cup 2010.

The point not being made by the sporting diplomats is that Morocco has shown time and again that it cannot be taken at its word.

It has lied internationally with promises like allowing the Saharawi people a referendum to determine their own future.

And it has lied to its own people about economic plans that have done nothing to reduce unemployment and spur economic growth.

Meanwhile it spends billions keeping 120 000 soldiers guarding the 2 700 km sand wall, or berm, between the occupied and liberated zones of Western Shara.

Morocco can barely maintain this.

It relies on financial support from France and the United State who hold their noses about Morocco’s lamentable human rights record because they see it as a bastion against militant Islam in North Africa.

Nevertheless Morocco has actually become one of the most dangerous breeding grounds for Islamist terrorists.

So how could the country that relies on aid, tourism – particularly European sex tourism, exploiting the dagga trade, growing oranges and raking in profits from stolen Saharawi phosphates possible afford to stage a World Cup?

The Rabat authorities managed to cobble together a pitch, but Morocco’s neighbours and fellow Africans clearly did not believe it.

If M6 and his men really plan to make yet another bid in 2030, they have their work cut out if  they plan to avoid another humiliation.

Ending their occupation of Western Sahara would be an excellent start.

But that is all it would be: a start.

The post How could a country that relies on handouts, dagga and the sex trade possibly host a World Cup? appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Africa’s last colonial  power could not even secure the votes of the  continent for the right to host the world’s most watched sporting  event in 2026.

The joint bid of the United State, Canada and Mexico to host the 2026 football World Cup promises to earn $11 billion for FIFA.

That’s more than twice what Morocco could have hoped to score.

At best a B-league economic player, Morocco spends many times what it can afford to maintain its illegal occupation of Western Sahara.

The disappointed Kingdom once again has to consider the reality that once faced the apartheid regime: that no normal sport is possible in an abnormal society.

The post Morocco learns no normal sport is possible in an abnormal society appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The post Egypt apologises for military slaying tourists appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.