MADLANGA J the time that Schedule 2 to the interim Constitution, as amended by Annexure A to Schedule 6 to the Constitution required a party proportional representation system, a harmonious approach was to recognise the existence of the right contended for by the applicants. That right existed from the time the Constitution took effect. Although it was initially not exercisable, there was a sunset to that bar. Thus the constitutional curb to the exercise of the right contended for by the applicants is gone. Now there is no reason not to afford individual adult citizens the opportunity to exercise the right that has always been there, but initially dormant and not exercisable because of the curb. General observations on interpretation The opposite conclusion cannot be made lightly in the face of the rights at stake here. The rights at stake are political rights. Although the focus is on section 19(3)(b), I earlier said freedom to make political choices under section 19(1) is also implicated. What commends the applicants’ interpretation is the fact that compulsion to form or join political parties has an impact on the exercise of these important political rights. The importance of these rights cannot be overstated in the South African context where – for centuries – those rights were enjoyed only by the white minority. Accordingly, the rights at stake here fall to be interpreted generously, rather than restrictively. In August Sachs J held: “The achievement of the franchise has historically been important both for the acquisition of the rights of full and effective citizenship by all South Africans regardless of race, and for the accomplishment of an all-embracing nationhood. The universality of the franchise is important not only for nationhood and democracy. The vote of each and every citizen is a badge of dignity and of personhood. Quite literally, it says that everybody counts. In a country of great disparities of wealth and power it declares that whoever we are, whether rich or poor, exalted or disgraced, we all belong to the same democratic South African nation; that our destinies are intertwined in a 46