While South Africa had achieved much in securing the rights of all since liberation, citizens were well aware from daily experience that much more is needed to be done in the country, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.
The president was addressing thousands of his supporters in De Aar in North West province on Tuesday during this year’s commemoration of Human Rights Day themed, “Consolidating and Sustaining Human Rights Culture into the Future.”
“On this Human Rights Day, let us affirm our determination to realise the rights of all the people who live in this country,” Ramaphosa said.
He added: “In so doing, we will give effect to the promise of our democratic Constitution, and we will be paying the greatest tribute to the visionary leaders who wrote the first South African bill of rights one hundred years ago.”
He told the people of De Aar that the government was aware of the lack of service delivery, especially in municipalities and would correct these issues.
“We are aware of it and we say, as government, we will fix the issue. Those who steal the money, we will make sure that they get arrested as well,” Ramaphosa said.
He said South Africa could not claim to be a country that respects human rights “if we do not do everything in our power and within our resources to ensure that all South Africans have access to services, land, housing, food, water, healthcare, and education.”
Human Rights Day commemorates the Sharpeville massacre that took place on 21 March 1960 when apartheid police killed 69 anti-apartheid protesters outside a police station in Johannesburg.
NM/jn/APA