When Jack Evans, 85, and George Harris, 82, said "I do" in Texas on Friday, most of the world celebrated. Their exchange of vows was made shortly after the US Supreme Court legalised same-sex marriage. The US decision was handed down almost nine years after same-sex marriage was legalised in South Africa when the Constitutional Court ruled that the definition of marriage should include gay unions. The court said the constitution guaranteed equal protection to all citizens, regardless of sexual orientation.After a 55-year relationship, the marriage of Evans and Harris is a happy reminder that our constitution has been an example to the world in enabling meaningful reconciliation and transformation.In November Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke said our constitution "is meant to migrate us from a murky and brutish past to an inclusive future animated by values of human decency and solidarity".He added: "We have established and maintained a functional democratic state with all the customary markers, including multipartyism, regular elections, and rule of law and separation of powers . our courts are independent and effective."The pride South Africans have in the constitution, and the hope they have that it can keep the country from catastrophe, have been horribly dashed by the government's ignoring of a High Court order and allowing Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to leave.Abdelgadir Mohammed, a Sudanese journalist, wrote in the Sunday Times yesterday: "The action of your government, President Jacob Zuma, in conniving with Bashir, is as heinous and ugly as the murder, destruction, mass rape, burning of villages and killing of civilians practised by his government every day in Sudan."Pride in our constitution has been replaced by the fear that our government's moral failure is becoming the norm...