Address by LN Sisulu, MP, Minister for the Public Service and Administration on Celebrating 20 years of Human Rights: Successes and Challenges, Vaal University of Technology
Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the Vaal University of Technology: Professor Irene Moutlana
Distinguished Members of Council
Distinguished Members of the Rectorate
Honourable Mayor of Sedibeng Cllr Simon Mofokeng
Rev George Lebusa
Staff and lectures
Institutional organisations
Students and student leadership
Distinguished members of the Community.
Ladies and gentlemen.
We meet today, on the eve of a historic day, the highlight of everything that represents a reprehensible past. I believe it is an apt moment to reflect if we, who run this country in your name, have lived up to the ideals and expectations of all those who have given their lives for us.
We meet on the eve of our appointment with history when we will be casting a ballot on the 7 May 2014. This exercise, which has now become so routine, so mundane and so ordinary, is filled with profound meaning since it represents the basic right won by the accumulative struggles of our people - the simple right to determine their own destiny. We meet at a time when our people are involved in daily struggles for a better life and better living conditions. Our people regularly take to the streets in service delivery protests, an expression of the power they have not to settle for less. These have nothing to do with lack of confidence in the government but have everything to do with localised dissent and demand for better services.
We meet at a time when a generation of young people will cast their vote for the first time. They will walk into the polling station, enter that polling booth, and I hope it will be with pride and honour, that this was the greatest gift that their forebears have given to them. We dare not forget that the struggle for the right to vote has come at great cost to the lives of so many people. We want to congratulate our youth for turning out in their numbers as first time voters. It is important at this point to acknowledge the sterling work done by the IEC in this regard and be grateful that we have among us Chancellors of the calibre of Advocate Pansy Tlakula and Vice Chancellors of the calibre of Professor Irene Moutlana to guide.
Julius Mwalimu Nyerere once said, that; “whiles others go to the moon, I go to the village.” Today marks one of the many serious milestones in the profound quest on the part of our government to return to the village through the many ANC door-to- door campaigns across the length and breadth of our land. We return to the village of our people, the village of our nation with all of its peoples of different shades, cultures, nationalities, religions and languages with a good story to share. This is the story of the twenty years of governance, this is a story of strenuous efforts towards removing the vestiges of apartheid and its legacies, and this is a story of hard lessons learnt and obstacle resolved.
It is a story that begins with our people’s heroic struggles against a system that was declared a crime against humanity by the United Nations. Our story takes into account that that heroic struggle should not ever be forgotten, because it marks the highest values of the human soul. When men and women of a generation were ready to give their lives, that you and I should be free. These are the men and women of Sharpeville, the youth of Soweto. Young men and women of the liberation forces, among them Solomon Mahlangu. All these were the beginnings of our story, when a People’s government was installed and Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected People’s President.
The weightiest reason for our gathering today is the solemn appreciation and reflection on what has been done to correct and reverse the ills and the legacy of apartheid. We have given you the true gift of freedom which is the restoration of your human dignity. This human dignity that our freedom confers to you cannot be quantified but it is enduring. We have created a new nation that is democratic in form, humanitarian in content and egalitarian in outlook. This new nation is the lasting gift those who died for our freedom have so generously bestowed upon us.
It is now 54 years since that advent of the brutal killing of our people. It is now twenty years since the advent of a new People’s government. We have passed laws to mediate the conduct of the state vis-a-vis those of an individual. We have enacted a new culture of the respect for individual and human rights. Allow me to share with you some of the salient pieces of legislation that we have passed to bring about a culture of human rights and human dignity. Since 1994 we passed various Constitutional Amendments that were intended to deepen democracy.
1. We have amended the Constitution sixteen times since 1996 to produce legislations intended to strengthen democracy and nation building. Some of these Constitutional Amendments conferred new names to old provinces and regulated the funding of political parties.
2. We created formidable institutions to protect democracy. These constitute critical hallmarks of the new constitutional dispensation that has been ushered by the ANC government since 1994. These institutions are independent in all manner of forms and conduct their business without any interference from the government. These institutions have been created ostensibly to ensure that the promise of our Constitution is fulfilled and that our people are sufficiently equipped to hold us to account.
These institutions include the:
1. The office of the Public Protector;
2. The Human Rights Commission;
3. The Gender Commission; to name a few.
Amongst other laws that we passed to engender a culture of Human Rights are the following;
1. The Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act, 1995 (Act 87 of 1995), which formed the statutory basis for the establishment, appointment of and work performed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
2. The Bill of Rights which gives sanctity to all the rights that must be enjoyed by the citizens of our nation.
3. The Child Justice Act, 2008 (Act 75 of 2008), represents another milestone aimed at recognising the particular vulnerability of children who come into conflict with the law. The Act establishes a criminal justice system for children in accordance with the values underpinning the Constitution and the international obligations of the Republic.
These are a few illustrations by way of examples of what the ANC has done to usher in a culture of respect for human rights.
When we say that South Africa is a better place after twenty years of freedom, we are accused of singing our own praises and beating our own chest. Let me rather show you how South Africa is indeed a better nation after 20 years according to various world organisations.
1. According to the Africa Competitiveness Report, published in 2013 by the World Economic Forum, South Africa's ranked in the number 2 spot out of 38 African countries in terms of economic competitiveness.
2. The Africa Competitiveness Report reviews the degree of competitiveness of Africa's economies on an annual basis. South Africa is rated as being on par with innovative countries such as India and Brazil.
3. South Africa is credited as having high-quality scientific research institutions, strong investment in research and development, and a significant level of collaboration between business and universities in research. South Africa is rated as the second most innovative African country, firmly between Tunisia in top spot and Senegal in Africa.
4. The world too thinks that South Africa is a far better place than twenty years ago. According to international institutions such as the Global Competitiveness Survey, the African Competitiveness Report, World Economic Forum, the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank South Africa leads the continent in financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation.
We have compiled a review of the last 20 years of government and we want to take every opportunity to share it with the citizens of this country, both as a means of accounting for what we have done on your behalf and also to reflect on our challenges. I want to say to you especially, the youth. We hold this government, this country in trust on your behalf and we hope that you learn from us so that when you are where I am now, you would have had the advantage of having learnt from our successes and from our mistakes, have learnt what not to do.
We are proud of our achievements. We spent the first three years of our transition trying to create the basics of democracy, levelling the terrain from which we would operate. We now have a state built on a very solid foundation – the Constitution, sound financial systems and sound administrative principles.
We have built a strong economy that has withstood the tremors of the economic crisis, however we still struggle with the unrepresentative nature of those who hold the wealth of this country. At this point, it has always struck me that we all agree that the wealth of this country is in the hands of a few and there is a need to drive the redistribution of wealth much more vigorously. And when we are all in agreement about this, we are actually in agreement on the basis of race. Very, very rarely do we remember that women are a factor.
I long for a time when we would wake up to the fact that it would be a much fairer world if the wealth of the country was in the hands of women. Not a bad idea if a Women’s Economic Power Party should register for the next election ... that was just a thought ... no party based on a single idea has any future, because its very isolation of that one right, makes it exclusive and exclusivity is almost as outdated as black consciousness!
But I was still telling the story of our achievements. According to a Report on 20 Years of Freedom by Goldman Sachs published in November 2013, illiteracy decreased from 33.6% to 19.1% by 2011. Access to basic services increased as follows during the same period:
1. Access to electricity increased from 58.2% to 84.7%
2. Access to water increased from 60.8% to 73.4%
3. Access to sanitation increased from 50.3% to 62.6%
What are the challenges that we face?
1. We face the challenge of rolling out infrastructure to the rural areas of our land.
2. We face the challenges of poor local service delivery that raise the ire of our people.
3. We face the challenge of drug and substance abuse amongst the youth.
4. We face the challenge of teen pregnancies and child headed households.
5. We face the challenge of getting rid of mud schools and pit latrines.
However, we face these challenges with the resolute determination to overcome them. About 16 million people access a government grant every month.
We have put emphasis on five priorities in the next five years and these are education, health, the fight against crime and corruption, rural development and land reform as well as creating decent work. Eight million learners are attending no-fee schools, whereas nine million learners are getting nutritious meals at school free of charge. National Student Financial Aid Scheme has been increased to 9 billion rand to meet the rising demands placed on it by needy students.
True monuments are not the imposing structures of remembrance that we erect with much public pomp and grandeur, but true lasting monuments must be the lasting joy and satisfaction that our people derive from a government that serves them truly and sincerely. We constantly strive to be such a government.
The Freedom Charter hold out such a promise of a Government of the People when it declared thus; “We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people.”
I thank you.
