PRESS RELEASE: CIAG Calls on President Ramaphosa to Confirm Whether the South African State Recognises the Right of its Constituent Peoples to Self-determination, Challenges the Notion of Absolute Constitutional Supremacy
The Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG) has formally written to President Ramaphosa asserting that:
- South Africa has a legal obligation to promote and realise the right to self-determination owed to the constituent peoples of South Africa;
- On the basis that the right to self-determination carries jus cogens status, an assertion South Africa has itself repeatedly made at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa cannot derogate from it, and accordingly, the right of all peoples to self-determination takes legal precedence over any parliamentary resolution, court ruling, or constitutional provision;
- That South Africa is potentially in default of its legal obligations to promote the realisation of the right to self-determination within South Africa; and
- That this has profound implications, including but not limited to, the Western Cape’s pursuit of devolved policing, and Afrikaners’ control of the language of instruction in single-medium schools, both of which the CIAG asserts can be demanded by right.
The CIAG has advanced the legal argument upon which these assertions are based in a legal monograph, “Why the Unitary Nature of the South African State Cannot Survive the Assertion of Self-Determination by a Sub-National Community”, which it published last week and which it has also submitted to the President.
Given its far-reaching legal significance, the CIAG has copied in the speakers and chairperson of the National Assembly, the National Council of Provinces, and the Western Cape Provincial Parliament; the Ministers of Basic Education, Police, and Justice and Constitutional Development; and the Western Cape Premier, and the Leaders of the DA and VF Plus, as representatives of the Western Cape and Afrikaners respectively.
The CIAG recognises that, in the narrow context of jus cogens rights, it is directly and intentionally challenging the absolute supremacy of the South African Constitution, but it is confident in the validity of its argument.
Accordingly, rather than shy away from legal debate, the CIAG has submitted its monograph to the law and political science departments of South Africa’s leading universities, inviting them to critique it and to advance any counter-arguments they may have.
CIAG spokesperson, Phil Craig, says, “The constituent peoples of South Africa need to know whether or not the State recognises and is willing to promote and accommodate their right to self-determination. This is the direct challenge with which we conclude our letter to the President. Given their desire for a centralised state, the ANC and its ideological allies may prefer to advance the notion that self-determination is limited to the South African people as a whole, but that is contrary to the law and the ANC’s own regularly stated position on the international stage. The law is clear: all peoples have a right to self-determination, and that includes the people of the Western Cape, along with many other sub-national communities in South Africa ”.
A copy of the letter to the president can be downloaded here
A copy of the monograph can be downloaded here
