MADLANGA J conscience is protected by section 15(1) of the Constitution.74 It is so that individual members of a legislature remain “free to follow the dictates of personal conscience”.75 But they do so at their own peril because “if [they] wish to be re-elected they need to bear in mind party discipline”.76 A classic Hobson’s choice for somebody who does not want to be shackled by party politics and constraints. Ms Revell, the second applicant, is such a person. We cannot make light of her choice. In the interpretative exercise, her personal situation is merely illustrative. We cannot dismissively say if you stand for political office through a political party, it makes no difference; you still do stand for political office. It may make all the difference to some. And it does to Ms Revell. She explains that, as a representative and leader of the Korana nation, a section of the Khoi and San people, she is averse to forming or joining a political party. Hers is not a for-the-sake-of-it objection. I understand her point perfectly. I read it to mean that, as a leader of a nation, she does not want to be constrained by that kind of partisanship that comes with being a member of a political party. That partisanship makes you ultimately answerable to the party. Being free of those shackles will make Ms Revell directly answerable to her nation, not to a political party. That is the choice she is making. In my book, it is a valid choice. Surely, her example is not isolated. There must be many and varied other examples. Subject to the Lavigne threshold, we cannot make light of them. This must not be taken to mean the state is entitled to ride roughshod over associational choices that are not sound. Even if not well founded, choices by an individual may well define her or him. Unless the state can justify interference, even Section 15(1) provides that “[e]veryone has the right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief and opinion”. 74 75 Ex Parte Chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly: In re Certification of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 [1996] ZACC 26; 1996 (4) SA 744 (CC); 1996 (10) BCLR 1253 (CC) (Certification judgment) at para 186. 76 Id at para 185. 25