INEQUALITY and poverty are core to the current student uprising. Section 9 of the Constitution deals with the concept of equality and restitutionary measures. Judge Dikgang Moseneke provided valuable guidance in a judgment against the backdrop of equality in "a society deeply divided, vastly unequal and uncaring of human worth". Remedial or restitutive measures were necessary to tackle these "stark social and economic disparities", he said. Perhaps the most significant remark that applies to the pressing higher education dilemma is that only by means of a "positive commitment to progressively eradicate socially constructed barriers to equality and to root out systematic or institutionalised underprivilege" can the constitutional ideal of social equality and equal benefits be achieved. Black economic empowerment (BEE) is meant to be restitutive or remedial in this sense. Its aim is to bring about broad economic inclusion and participation by eliminating systemic inequalities. Educati...
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