Judgment No. CCZ 4/18 13
Case No. CCZ 3/18
requirements for qualification is entitled to vote. It appears to me that the answer, in the
negative, lies in subs 2 (a) of the same provision. It restates the requirement for every voter to
be qualified to vote in terms of the 4th Schedule to the Constitution. Equality of votes, in my
view, simply relates to the fact that no vote is more important or weightier than the other.
Section 155 is still subject to the rest of the Constitution and in particular, the 4th Schedule and
therefore, the constituency-based residential requirements are still applicable. Section 155
(2)(b) clearly provides that every citizen eligible to vote must be availed the chance to vote.
The key is in the eligibility to vote. The section itself is a secondary provision. It only applies
after a person has brought himself within the strictures of s 67 and the 4th Schedule. I find in
the result that, since it cannot stand alone, s 155 does not assist the applicants’ case.
It is trite that the Constitution is a legal instrument which falls to be interpreted,
generally, according to the same principles that govern the interpretation of any other
legislation. In this respect it is important to note, as stated in the case of Rushesha and Others
v Dera and Others CCZ 24/17, that the Constitution evinces one singular document, one
singular law which is consistent within itself. This principle is aptly explained as follows in
Tsvangirayi v Mugabe and Others CCZ 24/17:
“The preferred rule of interpretation is that all relevant provisions having a bearing on
the subject for interpretation must be considered together as the whole in order to give
effect to the objective of the Constitution, taking into account the nature and scope of
the rights, interests and duties forming the subject matter of the provisions.”
In the South African case of State v Zuma and Others, 1995 (2) SA 642 (CC),
cited in the respondents’ heads of argument, it was stated as follows:
“…. We must heed Lord Wilberforce’s reminder that even a Constitution is a legal
instrument, the language of which must be respected. If the language used by the
lawgiver is ignored in favour of a general resort to values the result is not
interpretation but divination…”