Madam Speaker, hon members and fellow South Africans, Human Rights Day is a reminder of the sacrifices our struggle heroes and heroines, who lost their lives during the Sharpeville massacre, made for our freedom and democracy. These struggle icons fought bravely to extricate themselves and us, their progeny, from the apartheid regime's comprehensive web of oppressive entanglements.
Through their sacrifices, today we pride ourselves on having one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, the cornerstone of which is the Bill of Rights. Our freedom therefore symbolises a resounding triumph of the human spirit over adversity. Thanks indeed to our struggle icons for the freedoms we now enjoy.
While we can proudly proclaim that our society is built on the principles of human rights and that significant progress has been made to create awareness about human rights and to ensure that our people's rights are guaranteed, much more must be done to translate these rights into material improvements in our people's lives.
It is no secret that South Africa has fared poorly in the provision of second-generation human rights such as the right to work, education, health care, shelter and so on. Nowhere is this more evident than in the millions of South Africans who are jobless and have access only to poor-quality education and poor health care, while millions more are without shelter. Working together, we should ensure that these socioeconomic rights become a reality for our people.
On first-generation human rights such as the rights to freedom of speech, equality before the law, and so on, I must state categorically that our leadership here has sometimes seemed to be at variance with the objectives of building a cohesive nation. Many a time we failed to give practical expression to the delicate balance between rights and responsibilities. At times, some among us regrettably abused their rights, while those tasked with ensuring that the responsibilities that come with rights are met also responded with more abuse. Rather than reaching out to one another in order to resolve our political impasse regarding this delicate balance, we tended to resort to the primitive doctrine that might is right. The question now remains: How shall we ensure the entrenchment of a culture of human rights when this important delicate balance seems to elude us?
Hon members, our people are yearning for leadership on this and many other issues. Let's lead! We should not allow national interests to play second fiddle to cheap political point-scoring and vote maximisation. When we do this, we forfeit the right to call ourselves leaders. Colleagues, we have been called to lead. Let's lead!
We have to make our people believe again that South Africa is a country of exciting challenges and infinite possibilities. This is the only way we can change the thorny road on which we perambulated yesterday to a beautiful road for future generations on whose tomorrow our actions today impact.
God bless South Africa! I thank you.