MK Party’s attack on Section 235 is an assault on the inalienable right to self-determination

PRETORIA — The MK Party’s attempt to repeal Section 235 of the South African Constitution is a symbolic but deliberate attack on the inalienable right of communities to decide over their own affairs.

Section 235 was never the complete solution, but it remains the only explicit constitutional recognition that South Africa’s diverse nations have the right to self-determination. By trying to erase it, the MK Party is sending a clear message: the centralised state should refuse to even acknowledge that communities have some vague right to this effect.

South Africa already suffers from a highly centralised unitary state that is structurally incapable of governing over its vast and diverse territory. It is clear that the solution lies in decentralisation and recognising higher levels of self-governance. Repealing Section 235 would entrench that failure and close off the constitutional space for peaceful, democratic decentralisation.

The path forward is not the erosion of rights, but the activation of self-governance through a decentralised political system.

Lex Libertas will submit comments to Parliament in this regard.

Lex Libertas is a think tank and advocacy group working towards a viable political dispensation in South Africa, based on the principles of freedom, decentralisation, and self-governance.

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