Our heritage [by Sandy Grant]

Sandy Grant | Wednesday October 29, 2014 17:25

 

They may have wondered if the term had been previously used in this country and in what circumstances?

Hopefully Patrick Gunda will fill in the details for us – he being the one and only person involved with the law who appears willing to explain issues that can seem more than a little opaque to the rest of us.

In this one instance, however, and entirely by chance, I can refer those who are interested to the one other famous instance of its kind of which I have vague knowledge – the charge of sedition made against the Mahalapye Five arising from the comments they had made in the BNF magazine, Puo Phaa.

I have no idea what it was that they had said which prompted this particular charge and whether this might have related to the dictionary definition of the word or to the meaning as defined by the Penal Code.

Maybe someone else, perhaps Gunda himself, could give us an idea about this. It will be noted that the decision to drop the charge against them was taken by the Attorney General, Alan Tilbury – there being then no such post as Director of Public Prosecutions.

Anyone who is interested in knowing more can utilise Google as I did and will find that the listed examples of its use are limited to England the USA, which is a pity. But there is enough information provided to suggest that its past use has been more than a little contentious.