Thinkers at home and abroad are lamenting the decline of SA’s democratic project. A stirring article by Raymond Suttner writes of “prevailing lawlessness” in which flourishes “a countervailing set of norms”. In withering criticism, CNN analyst Fareed Zakaria speaks about “a rising degree of illiberalism” in our country (and India), despite a promising start. In short, democratic norms have been upended.

As I watched the muscular engagement of the parliamentary bouncers and the EFF red berets for the umpteenth time, it struck me that what was really unravelling before our eyes was the tragic demise of a democratic institution. The fisticuffs are childish and thuggish. The real damage is the steady erosion of institutional rules, mores, values and procedures on which a new and fragile democracy depends. When parliament is rubbished as an institution, a pillar of democratic accountability crumbles. Our children might well grow up without an elevated sense of politics as duty or parliament as the representative voice of the people. We are in more trouble than we realise...