Fellow South Africans I greet you all in the name of our democratic government led by the African National Congress; the oldest liberation movement in the history of South Africa and Africa.
Ladies and Gentlemen, progress has been made since the 1994 democratic breakthrough in the Human Rights Front in the Republic of South Africa. However more needs to be done on three strategic fronts of inequality, poverty and unemployment.
Since 1994 millions of our people have access for the first time to clean water sources, access to human settlement, health care services, sport and recreation opportunities, electricity and power, education and training, and etc.
However, this progress made by the ANC government is continuously undermined by the widening gap between the rich and the poor in South Africa. The few top 20% richest in our country continue to control 80% of our economy and predominantly white male; whilst the bottom 20% majority of our people of whom the majority are black and women share only 20% of the economy.
Hence, the ‘two nations’ pedagogy of the former President of the African National Congress and the Republic of South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki still resonates in the minds of the majority of our people in this country. It is true that South Africa continues to be a country with two nations. One which lives in abundance and affluence on the one hand and the other who lives in poverty and squalor on other hand.
The most hard hit and affected by this misnomer are black people in general and Africans in particular; the majority of whom are women living in rural areas.
It is evident that the rich are getting richer and the poor are becoming poorer and services that are due to them are lagging behind the needs of the lay person on the streets.
Unemployment in many communities especially black areas is reaching high and unacceptable proportions. Adults and children are going to bed at night without a plate of food. Crime and criminality is infesting our communities on a daily basis and leads to feelings of insecurity and fear.
Our children in general and young girls in particular are vulnerable to violence and abuse, especially those children who live in the child-headed households.
Ladies and Gentlemen, these are some of the examples of human rights challenges that are facing our society and the ANC government today. The ANC government acknowledges these challenges and has put in place mechanisms to deal with them. But more needs to be done.
Overcrowding in dwellings, prisons and in schools leads to the scourge and spread of diseases such as TB, HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases that are the leading causes of death in South Africa and Africa. HIV/AIDS alone continues to kill the poorest of the poor, particularly those who are bread winners especially in young families.
As we commemorate and celebrate the Human Rights Day today, as ANC government we re-commit ourselves to double our efforts to accelerate the war against unemployment, poverty and underdevelopment.
Working together with all our people; we want that most vulnerable of our people especially the youth, women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities have more access to quality services, access to quality health care services and quality education, access to quality human settlement, leave in safer communities, and have access to decent work and other important amenities.
In honour of former President of the ANC and the Republic, President Nelson Mandela, the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro must as a matter of urgency respond decisively to the challenges that our people in general and the ANC in particular is facing including underdevelopment, poverty and ignorance.
As the ANC we need to continue, with vigilance, to deploy capable cadres of our movement into local, provincial and national levels of government and offices who clearly understand the historic mission of the African National Congress (ANC) and the objectives of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR).
The ANC was formed hundred years ago to address the challenges of inequality, poverty and backwardness as well as liberating our people from the Apartheid Colonial regime. It was founded to liberate all our people from political and economic bondages.
Therefore, as we celebrate the 100 years of the fighting spirit of the African National Congress (ANC), we have an opportunity to present a fresh and new approach in our struggle; a new focus on economic transformation and economic freedom.
This vision requires men and women who are visionaries, committed in the vision of the Freedom Charter and that of the NDR to work with the masses of our people to address the triangle challenges of inequality, poverty and unemployment.
This journey, by the way, is thorny and need men and women of honour. It needs men and women of stature. It needs cadres of note to lead this struggle. This struggle is not going to be won easily. It needs cadres that were baptised in the revolutionary fires of the National Democratic Struggle.
It does not need sissies and cowards. It does not need people with a double-agenda. It does not need hypocrites and unbalanced individuals. It needs time-tested revolutionaries who went through the burning fires of test.
This epoch of our struggle need cadres of the movement who can stand the heat in the kitchen. Those of us who cannot stand the heat in the kitchen, we suggest that, they must just get out of the kitchen before is too late. Dedelabanye!!!!!
If the ANC is really serious about the human rights challenges of our people it will do the right thing ready itself to take unpopular decision, that are morally correct, that will in the end tackle the triple challenges of inequality, unemployment and poverty.
Hence, the Nelson Mandela Metro is well located to work together with all our people in this part of our country to push back the frontiers of poverty, underdevelopment and ignorance.
You can only do that if you have leaders who are prepared to sacrifice for the benefit of mankind in the spirit of human solidarity and human sacrifice.
I would like to wish you all a wonderful Human Rights Day. To us this is a special day in the life of South Africa, where our people in the length and breadth of our country commemorate the Sharpeville Massacre whilst at the same time celebrate the achievements made in the 18 years of the democratic rule especially progress made in the Human Rights Front.
Thank you.
Minister of Sport and Recreation South Africa (SRSA), Honourable Minister Fikile April Mbalula (MP) Nelson Mandela Bay Metro – Port Elizabeth Eastern Cape Province Republic of South Africa (RSA), 21 March 2012
