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Polity
Published: 21 Mar 2009
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| SA: Motlanthe: Address by the President of South Africa on Human Rights Day (21/03/2009) | |
| Date: 21/03/2009 Source: The Presidency Title: SA: Motlanthe: Address by the President of South Africa on Human Rights Day Programme director, Hon Minister Enver Surty, Hon Premier Dipuo Peters, Hon Chairpersons of State Institutions supporting Constitutional Democracy here present: Adv Lawrence Mushwana Mr Jody Kollapen Ms Nomboniso Gasa Rev Westley Mabuza Dr Brigalia Bam Honourable Executive Mayor of Sol Plaatjie Municipality Mr Patrick Everyday, Excellencies, Comrades and friends, Ladies and gentlemen, Bana beso! Fellow South Africans, Today we are all gathered here to pay tribute to and honour the memory of South African heroes and heroines who sacrificed their lives in pursuit of freedom, justice and human rights. It was on this day in Sharpeville 49 years ago, that the apartheid security forces mowed down 69 unarmed peaceful demonstrators and injured more than 180 others for protesting against carrying the hated "dompas". Theirs was a peaceful protest, a human rights exercise, to walk freely in the streets of the land of their birth without carrying this badge of racial oppression. The carrying of the demeaning "dompass" violated their pre-eminent right to human dignity and inhibited their right and freedom of movement. Chairperson, Our nation is celebrating this historic day under the theme: 'celebrating 15 years of Freedom and Human Rights,' which itself is an appropriate theme that signals the Human Rights achievements we have made since the epochal democratic election of 27 April in 1994. Today, as we honour those who sacrificed their lives, it is befitting that after 15 years since the advent of democracy we should pause and look back at the road traversed and reflect on what needs to be done to realise a non-racial, non-sexist democratic society based on the constitutional principles of human dignity, achievement of equality and freedom. South Africa's history, of racial oppression and the denial of human rights, through colonialism and later, the policy and institutionalisation of apartheid, is well documented. The majority of South Africans were deprived of the most basic services needed for survival and development. These services were constructed as privileges to be distributed on the basis of apartheid's distorted logic of racial preference and dominance. It is in recognition of these realities, that our Constitution was primarily aimed at correcting the divisions of the past and establishing a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights. We owe our wonderful Constitution and our being as a democracy to the sacrifices of these heroes and heroines, many of whom paid the ultimate price for us to enjoy the democracy that we have today. Human rights and democracy are closely linked. Democracy is rooted in values based on respect for the equal worth of all human beings. By the same token, full compliance with human rights presupposes a democratic society. Respect for human rights is fundamental to a well functioning democracy. This was illustrated in the following words of former President Nelson Mandela: "We must promote democracy at every level of society. Democracy and human rights are inseparable. We cannot have the one without the other." South Africa is celebrating 15 years of Freedom and the fundamental human rights based on the values of human dignity, equality and freedom as the cornerstone of our democracy. It is also the respect, protection, promotion and fulfilment of the principle of equal access to opportunity and the restoration of human dignity that we are celebrating. It is imperative that we should remember that one of the objectives of our Constitution is to improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person. It is therefore no coincidence that our Constitution recognises a group of rights referred to as socio-economic rights. In doing so, we recognise that human rights and the basic social conditions in which people live are fundamentally interconnected and therefore government should do as much as it can within available resources to secure for all members of society the right to education, healthcare, food, water, sanitation, shelter, access to land and housing. Fellow South Africans, following the demise of apartheid 15 years ago, government had to begin with the daunting task of constructing a free and democratic South Africa, and work towards rebuilding our ravaged economy. This we did fully aware that it would be a long, arduous struggle which would require vision and determination. Besides, creating a South Africa that embraces all her people required the enactment of laws, policies and procedures that were in line with the Constitution. These laws are supported by independent state institutions such as the South African Human Rights Commission, the Commission for Gender Equality, the Electoral Commission, Public Protector, Auditor-General and the Commission for the promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities. Each of these Institutions provided for in Chapter 9 of our Constitution has in its unique way contributed to the deepening of the values of democracy over the past 15 years. Along with these measures to strengthen our democracy government has also sought to move from policy formulation to implementation, from legislation to delivery in all areas. In this connection, remarkable progress in strengthening the culture of human rights and delivery in particular in the areas of economic, social and cultural rights continues apace. We have also prioritised the provision of basic infrastructure, increased access to primary healthcare, and made advances in realising the right to education, access to housing, social assistance, electricity, water and sanitation. As government we are also alive to the reality that not all our people enjoy human rights because they have no access to proper shelter, sanitation and other related necessities. Realising the vision of a better life for all South Africans is an essentially ongoing struggle which, working with all South Africans, government is determined to make possible. With this in mind, we have also moved to employ measures aimed at softening the severities of poverty on those of our people who had no access to socio-economic rights, informed by the reality that the eradication of poverty is on long and difficult process and not an event. In this regard, government has increasingly extended social grants to more and more South Africans in the course of time. Since 1994 over 12 million people in South Africa received social grants, and nearly eight million children younger than 14 years receive child support grant. Equally, government is aware that no human being derives human dignity from hand-outs and a perpetual life of dependency. Therefore the main aim of government remains enabling our people to access sustainable jobs. Accordingly, one of our key development strategies is education. Education is indispensable to the struggle against poverty which, in the long term, can only be systematically eradicated by an educated, skilled and technologically advanced populace. To this end, since 1994 access to education has improved as we are close to reaching the 100% participation in our primary and high schooling. Enrolment at the higher institutions has also increased. About 140 000 students in higher institutions of learning have been supported through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. And yet as we strive to improve the quality of our education and ensure that every school going child has access to education, we equally remain committed to provide access to other basic and essential services to our people. Steadily but surely, we have over these 15 years of democracy extended the provision of access to electricity, water and sanitation, among others. A further commitment is to ensure that access to these basic services is treated as a right which is not solely determined by the ability to pay. Consequently, government provides free basic services to poor households: 6 000 litres of water a month and electricity worth 50 kw per month. Access to basic services has improved substantially with potable water to 88%, electricity to 72% and sanitation to 73%. However, more still needs to be done. Since 1994, there are over 1600 clinics that have been built under the national clinic and upgrading programme. This has translated into 95% of South Africans in 2009 living within 5 kilometres of a health facility. There is room for improvement in the quality of the service rendered in some of these facilities. The HIV and AIDS pandemic still poses an enormous challenge in South Africa and our government recognises the seriousness of this pandemic and its impact on families and communities in general. Our Government through its comprehensive plan on HIV and Aids is committed to the expansion of the antiretroviral treatment. Over the last few years South Africa has currently the largest number of people enrolled on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in the world. There has also been some progress with regard to the struggle for gender equality. Chairperson, Prior to the advent of our democracy, women suffered under the triple yoke of oppression discriminated against as women, oppressed as black people; and exploited as workers. Since 1994, government has embarked on a campaign to reverse this odious history of gender oppression. Today, 30% of the parliamentarians, provincial legislature members and councillors are women. We must endeavour to ensure that the women of South Africa constitute 50% in the new administration. Our government continues to fight the scourge of gender based violence. The National Action Plan on Gender Based Violence, 2007, a requirement of the UN declaration on gender based violence bears testimony to government's efforts to fight against this scourge. One of the most important rights enshrined in our Constitution is ensuring that our people have access to courts. In addition, government is committed to bring justice facilities closer to the poor and marginalised through building additional courts and service delivery points for justice services to ensure that the remote and rural communities are reached. Since the advent of democracy, 23 new courts have been built and 58 courts have been refurbished. These new courts are accessible to our people including people with disabilities. There are five other courts that are still under construction and 18 more courts will be built in the next five years. Construction of a new High Court for the people of Limpopo will commence soon. This will go a long way in ensuring that the people of Limpopo will no longer have to travel to Gauteng to have their matters heard by a High Court. Government is also re-designating 23 of the 90 branch courts into full courts. This will ensure access to court for communities in rural, former Bantustans and black townships. We have also sought to address the issue of language in our justice system. Language can be a barrier for people to access justice in our courts. In line with our Constitution, Government has introduced a pilot project to use indigenous languages in our courts. The objective of the pilot project is to ensure that at least one court per region conducts proceedings in indigenous languages. This project will further minimise the possibility of human error during translation of court proceedings, prevent delays resulting from the unavailability of interpreters and enhance case-flow management. Government has also finalised legislation, developed policies and programmes and co-ordination mechanisms to facilitate access to justice for the most vulnerable and marginalised groups. On the rights of people with disabilities, South Africa has recently ratified the International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, the first new human rights treaty of the 21st century. This convention marks a major shift in the way in which the world's 650 million people with disabilities are treated. In ratifying this convention, South Africa was one of the only ten countries in the world to do so. The ratification of this convention means that we have to take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify and amend existing laws, regulations, customs and practices that discriminate against people with disabilities to be in line with the Convention. Furthermore, South Africa has been selected by the United Nations to pilot the implementation of this convention. Despite the progress made, we recognise that poverty constitute a violation of human dignity, which undermines the enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms. We painfully recognise that we cannot boast to be espousing the principles of human dignity and equality when many of our people are still living in conditions of poverty and underdevelopment. Government will continue with its efforts to eradicate poverty thereby affirming the dignity of our people. In recent years we have also witnessed some racial incidents such as those in Skierlik informal settlement and the University of Free State as well as the violent attacks on foreign nationals. These incidents are not compatible with the kind of society envisaged in our Constitution. They are inimical to the culture of human rights we are trying to inculcate. They also detract from creating a caring and humane society. In our quest to advance human rights, we need to aggressively promote social cohesion, inclusion, non racism and non sexism. These incidents also serve as not only as a reminder but as a directive to all of us, government, the Chapter 9 Institutions and civil society to redouble our efforts to ensure that the vision of our Constitution is realised. Our challenge, therefore, in the next 15 years is to ensure that the gains that we have made can be experienced by all who live in this beautiful country, black and white. To accelerate our progress, and extend its reach into every corner of our country, we need to work together to strengthen our democracy and inculcate the culture of human rights. There is no doubt that our democracy will be fully strengthened and entrenched when our people are aware of their fundamental human rights and freedoms. We therefore need to continue with this enormous commitment of educating our people about their rights, especially the vulnerable groups. Chairperson, On 22 April 2009 most of the South African citizenry will be going out to cast their vote thereby pronouncing on the leadership they prefer to carry the work of government. In doing so South Africans will be exercising one of the most important rights enshrined in our Constitution. At the centre of the struggle for the liberation of our country was the call for adult suffrage. Reminding us of the importance of the right to vote, in the August and Another vs. the Independent Electoral Commission, Justice Albie Sachs noted that: "Universal adult suffrage on a common voters roll is one of the foundational values of our entire constitutional order. The achievement of the franchise has historically been important both for the acquisition of the rights of full and effective citizenship by all South Africans regardless of race, and for the accomplishment of an all-embracing nationhood. The universality of the franchise is important not only for nationhood and democracy. The vote of each and every citizen is a badge of dignity and of personhood. Quite literally, it says that everybody counts." As government we would like to call on all the political parties that will be contesting this year's election to respect the political rights of our people as enshrined in the Constitution. As we approach the election, we should remember the importance of the principle of political tolerance and social cohesion for our future. We should all be committed to free and fair elections and allow all political parties the right to have access to all voters. Political intolerance has no place in our country. We wish you well on Human Rights Day. I thank you! |
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