Limpopo Premier Sello Moloto paid tribute to those who made sacrifices for the cause of democracy at Limpopo's main Freedom Day celebration at Mutale, in the province's Vhembe District, attended by an estimated 10 000 people, MEC's, traditional and business leaders and mayors.

He singled out Flag Boshielo, Lawrence Phokanoka, Chief Rasimphi Tshivhase and Ike Maphoto as Limpopo-based heroes who had not shirked their duty.

"We are a free people in a free country, living in a system where human rights are respected and protected by one of the world's most progressive constitutions," Moloto said.

He said that South Africans were free to live wherever they wished, and that they had the freedom to criticise or protest against the State, while also enjoying the right to free association and to elect the government of their choice.

However, the government had to respond to the challenges ahead, by using the power it had received correctly, to transform the lives of the people, the economy and society as a whole.

"Notwithstanding all these rights, our experience of the past twelve years of democracy tells us that our freedom will be short-lived, if we do not carry out our mandate to improve the lives of our people", he explained.

Moloto said South Africans had a lot to be proud of, and could face the future with greater confidence than most nations in the world. But he pointed out that more work needed to be done to accomplish the kind of society envisaged by those who met in Kliptown to adopt the Freedom Charter fifty years ago.

"History has called upon us to be the ones to bring to fruition the hopes and wished of those patriots who died in combat, and those who were jailed, like Nelson Mandela," the Premier added – BuaNews