House Chair and hon members let me first take this opportunity and join other hon members in conveying our deepest sympathy and heartfelt condolences to the Mthembu family during these trying times. In this Human Rights Day debate, 20 years into democracy and the attainment of freedom and the adoption of our Constitution, I wish to start off by quoting the founding president of the ANC Youth League, Comrade Anton Muziwakhe Lembede wherein he said and I quote:
... the African people have been told time and again that they are babies, that they are an inferior race, that they cannot achieve anything worthwhile by