NGCOBO J 14 years. This assumption ignores the principle of constitutional interpretation which requires courts, where possible, to construe a statute in a manner that promotes the rights in the Bill of Rights. The achievement of equality is one of the founding values of our constitutional democracy, a value echoed in the equality provision of the Bill of Rights (section 9). Section 158(5) must be read, if possible, to promote equality and not to promote inequality. [157] To this must be added the principles of accountability, responsiveness and openness which are part of the founding values of our constitutional democracy.121 These principles require that courts respond to requests for the use of CCTV or similar electronic media and to account for any decisions they make in this regard. Courts account by giving reasons for their decisions. The principle of accountability provides insurance against arbitrariness. The need to give reasons for a decision refusing the use of CCTV must be read as implicit in section 158(5) unless such a construction is inconsistent with the subsection. The same is true of section 170A(7). [158] To construe sections 158(5) and 170A(7) as not requiring the court to furnish reasons for refusing the use of CCTV or to appoint an intermediary for children over the age of 14 years, as the case may be, would render these subsections inconsistent with the Constitution. Consistent with the settled principle of constitutional construction, the construction which will bring these subsections within constitutional bounds must be preferred to that which will not. The importance of the guarantee of 121 Section 1(d) of the Constitution. 80