Act, in your small ways, to change SA, says Cameron

HELEN GRANGE

Cameron stressed that our individual efforts are particularly important at this perilous time when “it is alleged that criminal syndicates seek to capture the state to loot it on a massive scale for their own ends”. He said this in his speech titled “Justice in South Africa, an urgent duty on all”, delivered as the Auerbach Memorial Lecture at the Beit Emanuel Progressive Synagogue recently.

He cited two reports, one by church leaders and the other by academic analysts, that had suggested that these syndicates had “very considerably infiltrated and already seized the apparatus of state power in South Africa for corrupt gain”.

“If this is proved true – if even only part of it proves true – then dishonest leadership, corruption, mass looting of state entities and the destruction of independent institutions could see the demise of the ambitious and yet fragile venture that is the Constitution,” he warned.

While part of the outcome of this was beyond our control – the outcomes of elections or electoral conferences, the sway of political events and negotiations – Cameron cautioned strongly against submitting to despair or inaction.

“To help change our society does not require heroic sacrifices… It may require as little as making a well-directed contribution to a well-run organisation with a well-conceived vision, or spending a few hours a month with someone younger for whom your attention might be life changing.

“These gestures may not be enough to save our country. If the forces at play are as cynical and ruthless as some commentators suggest they are, we may be in grave peril. But that does not mean – cannot mean – that we should lay aside our commitment to fight for the good.

“This is our duty. It is a duty that accompanies the rights that have been guaranteed to us by the Constitution,” he said.

Cameron chose, as the theme for his speech, the life of Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish justice on the US Supreme Court, whose notions of personal and legal duty have much to offer South Africans today, he said.

Brandeis developed the idea of the right to privacy and to free speech as a societal good. As a Harvard graduated lawyer, he observed the law being used to protect the interests of the big and powerful at the expense of the vulnerable and poor, and later became known as the “people’s lawyer”. Diligent in data collection to bolster his cases, he revolutionised the field of constitutional law with his reliance on what have become known as “Brandeis Briefs” (research material).

“Today, human rights advocates around the world have embraced Brandeis’ visionary, fact-based approach to advocacy. His influence extends to the court in which I now sit. We often rely on amici curiae (impartial, knowledgeable adviser)… This forces us to examine the law as it works in practice, rather than simply how it works in theory,” he said.

Cameron said one of the reasons he chose Brandeis was because he was a Zionist who envisaged Palestine as a secular liberal democracy. “He embraced the notion that Zionism would extend the Jeffersonian vision of a state – one that would promote education, social justice and democracy and would protect the civil rights of all its inhabitants, men and women, Jews and Arabs.

“He stressed that the Jewish inheritance of ideals of democracy and social justice imposed duties on all Jews to lead individual lives worthy of their great inheritance while also respecting the lives of others,” he said. 

It’s possible that Brandeis’ vision was “romantic”, Cameron said, but “it is worth remembering the high ideals in which this noble lawyer cast the ambitions of Zionism”.

Cameron then voiced his own concerns regarding the current conflict in Palestine. “I do not presume to know the answers to that conflict, nor do I offer any now. I can speak only as a lawyer, for in law we must seek what justice there is to be had in a cruel, arbitrary and often capricious world.

“If we have respect for the law, including international law, we must recognise that where it trenches on Palestinian territory, the separation barrier violates international laws; the annexation of east Jerusalem is illegal; Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory violate every precept of the law of nations and cannot be condoned; by flagrantly and persistently violating international law, Israel forfeits much of its claim to moral standing,” he said.

Cameron said the lesson that Brandeis offered on Zionism was that it was possible to work towards a vision of a state that promotes equality in all its aspects and still be a “Zionist”. For South Africans, Brandeis’ life embodied three lessons, he said. “First, a commitment to rigorous hard work in the interest of others and of public causes; second, a deep suspicion of power and a commitment to protecting the weak and vulnerable who are exposed to its abuses; and third, an abiding belief in the power of law to secure justice in society.”

In a country still beset by dispossession, inequality and injustice, Cameron again invoked Brandeis as an example of how we can do our bit. “At an early age, he committed himself to work one hour per day on pro bono legal services.”

He then reminded us of how we fought against the PW Botha regime. “What saved us in the 1980s was the will of committed, purposeful individuals… we are no worse off now.

“On the contrary, we are far better off. We live in a functioning democracy, where despite its glaring insufficiencies, the law still generally prevails and where we exercise rights unimaginable under apartheid… Those rights are worth fighting to preserve. But that depends on us.”