Programme Director
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services
Chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission
Members of the Steering Committee
Representatives of government
Representatives of Chapter 9 bodies and civil society
Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends
Thank you for the invitation and for the opportunity to meet with you this morning.
Last month South Africa featured in many international news reports. Milton Nkosi, reporting for BBC, said it plainly when he said – “Standing in the middle of this football field that has been turned into a refugee camp overnight in Chatsworth, one cannot help but feel ashamed of being South African.”
One just had to look at social media to see that this is a sentiment that many people shared. The overwhelming majority of South Africans pride ourselves as being part of the rainbow nation, yet the reality is that violence against foreign nationals happens. Racism exists. Racial discrimination still exists, after more than 2 decades of democratic rule. We still see incidents of related intolerance such as discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Perhaps one could argue that some in our country, at their peril, are starting to take democracy for granted. We must ask ourselves if this is the type of society that many of us struggled for, for which many of our activists died for and for which many of us were imprisoned.
Of course South Africa is a better place than before 1994. There is no doubt whatsoever about that. But we cannot sit back, quote the Constitution and then expect the very existence of a progressive Constitution to somehow magically create the type of society that it enjoins us to create. To create a society depends on human beings, on communities and on changing the very underlying attitudes that give rise to the way people treat others. That is why the National Action Plan is so important.
As you know, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development is responsible for promoting and mainstreaming the National Action Plan (NAP) in government and civil society as well as monitoring and evaluating progress of the NAP.
The process relating to the development of a National Action Plan emanated from the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action which was adopted at the 3rd World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban in 2001. The WCAR adopted the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action which, amongst others, urges “States to establish and implement without delay national policies and action plans to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, including their gender-based manifestations.”
There has been criticism that the NAP is taking too long to finalise. For example, City Press recently wrote that “somewhere in the department of justice, a 2001 report on racism and xenophobia has been gathering dust for, as far as can be established, the past three years. There was apparently an effort to finalise it after the 2008 xenophobic attacks, but it’s gone quiet now.”
This is simply not true. The NAP has not been gathering dust. The development and finalisation of the NAP has been a long protracted process for many reasons.
As you know, a draft NAP was developed by the DOJ&CD in consultation with other key government departments, Chapter Nine institutions and Civil Society Organisations - in fact, members of this Steering Committee gathered here today.
The department established a National NAP Steering Committee comprising 20 government departments, 4 Chapter Nine Institutions, and 10 CSO’s to assist in the conceptualisation, planning and development of the NAP.
The Department has, since October 2012, conducted a number of sectoral workshops and consultations on the draft NAP, which were representative of relevant stakeholders.
Version 11 of the draft NAP was tabled before the JCPS Cabinet Committee and Cabinet for consideration for approval for the commencement of the public consultation process during February 2013.
Following consideration by the JCPS Cabinet Committee, the latter noted the content of the draft NAP and made a number of recommendations regarding the draft NAP, including amongst others, that certain sections of the NAP be redrafted and that the matter subsequently be resubmitted for finalisation to the JCPS Cabinet Committee.
Subsequent thereto, the NAP has been revised in line with the JCPS Cabinet Committee recommendations. It has furthermore been updated and the content finalised with due regard to developments in the country, including the National Development Plan, the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, the Hate Crimes Framework, Social Cohesion Framework and the Presidency’s Twenty Year Review Report.
In terms of the process adopted to develop the National Action Plan and to establish the Steering Committee so as to ensure that the process is consultative and inclusive, as well as includes the participation of civil society, the Director-General of the DOJ&CD at the time, established an Inter Departmental Steering Committee, comprising various role players, to facilitate the writing up and finalisation of the NAP. The Steering Committee was co-chaired by Ms Yasmin Sooka, who is the National Director of the FHR and Dr Zonke Majodina, who was then Deputy Chairperson of the SAHRC.
The development and actual implementation of programmes, measures and activities in respect of the NAP lies with all government departments, Chapter Nine institutions, civil society as well as business, labour, the media and other sectors.
Why is the NAP so important? The NAP will provide the basis for the development of a comprehensive framework for public policy to address the scourges of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
It is important to stress that the NAP is not intended to replace any existing laws and policies - rather it is complementary to existing, and new, legislation, government policies and programmes which address equality, equity and discrimination.
There are various such initiatives as, for example, the Inter- Ministerial Committee on Migration, the work of the LGBTI National Task Team and the recently established Ad Hoc Joint Parliamentary Committee to Inquire into the incidents of violence against foreign nationals.
The Department has amended the 13th draft of the NAP, which has been revised and updated in accordance with the latest UN Guidelines published in 2014. This is the version that forms the basis of consultations such as today’s workshop.
After the conclusion of this consultation process, which was preceded by a workshop with government departments that was held yesterday, primarily aimed at updating the measures, programmes and specific activities that government departments will undertake towards implementing the NAP, and upon adoption of the Roadmap towards ultimately depositing the NAP to the UN, the draft NAP will be submitted to Cabinet for approval of the public consultation process to popularise the NAP during the current 2015/2016 financial year.
We envisage a public consultation process in the 9 provinces in accordance with our Department’s approved APP and Outcome 14 for the current MTSF, with municipalities nationally, as well as with other relevant sectors.
The practical implementation of the NAP once finalised, approved and deposited to the UN, will be enhanced through the collection, analysis and publication of reliable data to assess the situation of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, as recommended by the UN Practical Guide.
One of the practical measures that the DOJ&CD intends to develop and implement is a long-term tool for compiling periodical assessments of behaviours, attitudes and prevalence of incidents, and to develop future interventions.
Such a tool will enable government, civil society, Chapter Nine institutions and all other role players to develop appropriate responses and interventions aimed at promoting equality, non-racialism and non-discrimination.
This will ultimately result in appropriate preventative programmes to reduce these incidences. The findings provided by such a tool will guide future research and create a platform for role-players to report incidents, share (international) best practices and analyse the findings.
It is envisaged that such a tool could ultimately lay the foundations to provide for a toll-free hotline (as a rapid response mechanism) that will be easily accessible to the public for the reporting of incidents linked to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
Furthermore, a monitoring mechanism as well as a monitoring and evaluation strategy will be developed and implemented to ensure results based reporting on the progress and ultimately, on the impact achieved, relating to the implementation of the NAP.
Other activities that our department will undertake during the NAP implementation phase will include:
- promoting anti-racism and anti-xenophobia programmes;
- conducting education and training programmes to increase awareness of anti-racism, equality and anti-discrimination issues and mobilise support from a wide range of experts;
- collecting and disaggregating data on related incidents to allow for a more comprehensive analysis and identification of how to effectively combat it;
- establishing a database for the documentation of all incidents, and
- informing government policies related to the prevention of such incidents.
Thank you to each and every one who have been involved in the process of developing the NAP.
I would conclude with a few lines from a letter, written last month by President Jacob Zuma to Mozambican writer Mia Couto. It reads:
- “This is a difficult period for our country and its people. Millions of peace loving South Africans are in pain also because they are being accused of xenophobia, which is not true.
- The actions of a small minority should not be used to wrongfully label and stereotype more than 50 million people.
- We continue to build a society free of discrimination. We are doing so because we know the pain of being discriminated against because of skin colour, language or nationality.
- What gives us strength as a government, is that we are working with the full support of our peace-loving population. The peace and friendship marches that are being held throughout the country embody the South Africa we know and the South Africa we are proud of.
That is the South Africa which condemns hatred, violence, racism, xenophobia and all other related intolerances.
I invite you to join us my dear brother, as we move beyond the anger and pain, and promote sustainable and inclusive development as well as peace and friendship all over Africa.”
Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues,
Peace and friendship is only possible - in our country, our region and our continent - if we move forward on the National Action Plan.
I thank you.
