History is littered with the legacy of tyrants and leaders who abused the rights of citizens to hold on to power, ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma said on Monday. He was delivering the keynote address on International Human Rights Day at Wits University in Braamfontein. Zuma said some leaders still did not understand the needs of the people or their rights and just abused it. "It is even more tragic when leaders pretend the abuse is not happening...When history deals with dictators, those dictators should pay the consequences," said Zuma.

He said some human beings had the tendency to undermine the rights of others, stealing their dignity and engineering people's suffering. "It is those who feed on the decay of society and lay the foundation for tyrants."

Society was defined by culture, where ordinary citizens were the custodians of human rights and dignity. South Africa belonged to those living in it and it could not be claimed by government. "There should never be a time where state policy is abused and it should never be excused," he said. "We must continue to uphold our constitution and ensure that organs of state do not abuse our rights."

He stressed that if South Africans continued to turn a blind eye to the abuse of state power, it would result in some people thinking they had more rights than others. "We don't want a country where some have more rights than others. There is enough for all to share."

Zuma spoke about the history of human rights and said that HIV/Aids and crime should have been treated as national emergencies. If people were living in fear, then the fundamental rights of safety and security were being abused, he said. "Fear is not consistent with human right...fear is not a national right," Zuma said.

Attention, he said, should also be paid to free education and the daily struggle of women in rural areas who could not afford to feed and clothe their children. These were practical issues that needed practical programmes to deal
with them. "Every citizen should have free education because it is a basic human right...we should not have to buy it."

"I also have a problem with the law which is user friendly to criminals. In a country where there is no death penalty then the law must bite," said Zuma. Members of the ANC's Women's League and Youth League as well as MECs, ambassadors and high court judges were also present.

During his address, Zuma described Sexwale as his student. "I knew him as a student and tamed him into a soldier...if we had to use military ranks, he would address me as his commander," said Zuma.

Earlier in the day, Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi said there had been a massive dissemination of propaganda intended to "demonise" Zuma as "Satan with a long tail". He said that when South Africans listened to results of ANC presidential votes -- in particular the nominations two weeks ago -- they could not believe how people could have voted for Zuma.

"There are massive activities by those who fear change and those wanting to reverse the voice of the people," he said. Vavi said Zuma reflected the basic values of the South African people. "We know him as the son of a peasant from Nkandla, a rural part of KwaZulu-Natal... he became our patron, our peacemaker and our leader," said Vavi.

"After seven years of demonising him, some don't understand that we see ourselves in Jacob Zuma, we see somebody who reflects the needs of the people."

Vavi was one of the many guests at the Wits theatre. Among the dignitaries were Tokyo Sexwale, Jacob Zuma and Jansen Rudolf (the director for Lawyers for Human Rights). Members of the ANC's Women's League and Youth League as well as MECs, ambassadors and high court judges were also present.