Programme Director,
Honourable Speaker of the National Assembly,
Honourable Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces,
Honourable Deputy Chief Justice of the Republic, Justice Dikgang Moseneke,
Honourable Premier, Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Members of the Judiciary,
Heads of Chapter 9 institutions,
Former Chief Justices,
Esteemed Chaskalson family,
Members of the legal profession,
Fellow mourners,
Comrades, compatriots, and friends.
We have gathered to pay tribute to an outstanding South African, a prolific jurist, a freedom fighter and a legal legend of our time.
It came as a shock to all of us when we learned of his passing on Saturday, 1 December.
When we joined the family to lay former Chief Justice Chaskalson to rest on Monday, we came to terms with the reality that a colossus who has done so much for this country and its people, was no more.
Today we have the opportunity to acknowledge his impeccable and selfless contribution to the attainment of the free and democratic society we have all come to enjoy today.
As we mourn his passing on, we also celebrate his titanic legacy.
He believed in, and fought for the ideals outlined in the Freedom Charter, that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people.
Thus, in his illustrious career spanning more than four decades, former Chief Justice Chaskalson has been a solid and unwavering fighter for freedom, human rights and social justice as espoused in the Charter.
He believed strongly that justice could not prevail in an unjust system in which the majority of the people were dehumanised and oppressed by colonial and apartheid regimes.
Together with his peers, among them our stalwart such as his long-time friend, Adv George Bizos and the late Braam Fischer, they helped demolish the legal fortress upon which apartheid was built, and built the foundation on which our constitutional order is premised.
It is significant that next week we will have the honour of renaming the Bloemfontein airport in Mangaung after Braam Fischer.
As a nation we are truly proud of these outstanding and noble compatriots who never steered from the cause of freedom and justice.
Despite the threats of being jailed or even losing their clients to the gallows, they soldiered on at the height of repression, trying to obtain even the smallest form of reprieve for freedom fighters in trouble with the apartheid laws.
They knew that each case was an uphill battle. With the exception of a few courageous judges who criticised Government for its unjust policies, it was convenient for the majority of judges who owed allegiance to the government of the day to give effect to unjust and oppressive laws.
Therefore, when they appeared for the accused in the Rivonia Trial, regardless of the good case that Arthur Chaskalson and his legal team presented, the case was always bound to take the direction it took.
Indeed Rivonia confined President Nelson Mandela and the MK High Command to life imprisonment on Robben Island, where many freedom fighters were to follow later, including our Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke.
We are proud of that Rivonia legal team. Justice Arthur Chaskalson and Adv George Bizos put up a good fight against all odds, and saved our leaders from a potential death sentence.
Throughout their active careers, they never tired of performing their heroic duties diligently and with passion, driven by the knowledge that they were contributing to the fight for a better society, a democratic non-racial, non-sexist, united and prosperous society.
Compatriots and friends,
Besides a sharp legal mind and political acumen, Justice Chaskalson will also be remembered for his compassion and humility. It is for this reason that he founded the Legal Resources Centre, to which many ran for relief against apartheid laws which were designed to make their lives miserable.
Fellow mourners,
It was most appropriate that Justice Chaskalson served as the first head of the Constitutional Court in a free South Africa.
He had participated so directly in the process of crafting the Constitution.
He had played an important role in the multi-party negotiations as a member of the technical committee that drafted the Bill of Rights, which was later enshrined in our Constitution.
At the inauguration of the Constitutional Court, President Mandela, had this to say, and I quote:
“To Judge Arthur Chaskalson and other members of the Constitutional Court let me say the following: yours is the most noble task that could fall any legal person. In the last resort, the guarantee of fundamental rights and freedoms for which we have fought so hard, lies in your hands. We look to you to honour the Constitution and the people it represents’’.
Justice Chaskalson went on to play a pivotal role in building our constitutional jurisprudence that has become exemplary among many jurisdictions of the world.
He led the Constitutional Court to many landmark decisions which continue to guide us as we navigate the difficult path from the deep-rooted scars of our past to a future founded on the Supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law.
Amongst the first decisions penned by the Court under his reign is Makwanyane judgment in which the Court boldly found the death sentence unconstitutional as it violated the right to life and the right to human dignity.
These rights were affirmed by the Court as the foundation and source of all other rights in the Bill of Rights entrenched in our Constitution.
Our Constitutional Court is now approaching the 500 mark of all cases it has heard since its establishment in 1994, a great achievement indeed.
Each of the cases it has decided contains one or more fundamental elements which are geared to strengthen and nurture the values that underpin our constitutional democracy.
Compatriots and friends,
We have learned a lot from our former Chief Justice, who used force of example to teach others.
We know what he wanted to see in our country. He wanted to see what is spelled out in our nation’s National Development Plan, where all South Africans can say:
- we have water
- We use a toilet
- we have food on the table
- We fall asleep without fear
- We listen to the rain on the roof
- We gather together in front of heat.
It is a society where by 2030, each community should have:
- a school
- Teachers who love teaching and learning
- A local library filled with a wealth of knowledge
- A librarian
- A police station with respected and upright police
- A clinic with nurses who love caring for people.
Once we have achieved these goals, we would have made his contribution to have been worth it.
He reminded us of his wishes in his recent address to a conference at the University of Cape Town under the theme “Challenges facing the administration of Justice”.
He reiterated the pronouncement of the Constitutional Court in 1998 in the Soobramoney case that:
“We live in a society in which there are great disparities in wealth. Millions of people are living in deplorable conditions.
There is high level of unemployment, inadequate social security, and many did not have access to clean water or to an adequate health services.
“These conditions existed when the Constitution was adopted and a commitment to address them, and to transform our society into one in which there will be human dignity, freedom and equality, lies at the heart of our new constitutional order.
“For as long as these conditions continue to exist, that aspiration will have a hollow ring”.
In his memory, the Executive commits to do better than before, in improving the implementation of programmes that are meant to improve the lives of our people.
We commit to do better than before, working with the other arms of the state and all sectors, to reverse the legacy of inequality, poverty and under development and to build a society together, where no child goes to bed hungry.
Justice Arthur Chaskalson has run his race and fulfilled his mission to contribute to building a better South Africa in which all are treated with dignity.
He fulfilled the undertakings made in his oath of office, in which he had sworn to: “to be faithful to the Republic of South Africa,
To uphold and protect the Constitution and the human rights entrenched in it, and
To administer justice to all persons alike, without fear, favour or prejudice, in accordance with the Constitution and the law’’.
On behalf of the Government and people of South Africa, we convey our deepest condolences to the Chaskalson family. Your loss is our loss.
South Africa is poorer without our distinguished former Chief Justice and President of the Constitutional Court.
We shall console ourselves with the memories of his sterling contribution to this country and the fact that our history of struggle for freedom and democracy cannot be complete without mentioning Justice Arthur Chaskalson.
May his soul rest in eternal peace!
I thank you.
