Nomalanga Mkhize, Business Day
THE "maiden bursary" offered by the
uThukela district municipality affirms two points. First, it shows why the
principle of constitutionalism is necessary in a pluralist society. By
pluralist I mean a society in which many cultural institutions, customs and
codes coexist and interact.
We can continuously debate and change the
content of that Constitution over time, but a constitution is necessary to act
as final arbiter lest we give way to extreme cultural relativism that can
legitimise abhorrent practices.
Second, the bursary demonstrated a major
ideological faultline of the postcolonial state. Not neocolonialism, but
neotraditionalism. By this I mean the tendency of postcolonial political orders
to express power and statecraft through a toxic mix of conservative politics,
culturalist rhetoric and very masculinised political practice.
