Chairperson, hon members and comrades, human rights are rights that belong to every South African. Likewise, South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. Our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities with no distinction based on colour, race, sex or belief.
March 1960 saw 69 South Africans gunned down by the then inhumane and morally bankrupt regime in power in our country during the protest in Sharpeville. Those South Africans who gathered in Sharpeville, and many others throughout the length and breadth of this country, were fighting for the right to be treated as equals in the land of their birth.
We have a duty to remind ourselves of and to teach our children about the period prior to 1994, when the vast majority of white people in this land, with the exception of a small minority among them, claimed exclusive ownership of this country - an ownership, they argued, that entitled them to the land, wealth and participation in government to the exclusion of the majority of South Africans. The majority were expected to regard themselves as fortunate to be allowed to live, breathe and work in a white man's country.
This majority was expected to be content with being referred to as "garden boys" and "kitchen girls", even by those who were young enough to be their great-grandchildren. All this was only because the majority did not belong to the master race and was thus regarded as subhuman, without any human rights.
Informed by these and many other events predating our democratic dispensation, South Africans from all walks of life crafted and adopted the Constitution in order for us never to return to those dark days. It is a Constitution that enjoins all of us to build a society that is united, democratic, nonracial, nonsexist and prosperous.
Pursuant to these noble principles, South Africa today enjoys a system of vibrant multiparty democracy with a progressive Bill of Rights recognising political, socioeconomic and environmental rights and obligations. We have a system of the separation of powers between the executive, the judiciary and the legislature. Beyond the formal processes of regular elections, various types of legislated and other forums ensure popular citizen participation. The progress made in this regard since 1994 must be celebrated by all of us. Long may it live.
However, we hasten to acknowledge that regular elections and progressive policy on paper is not enough. While we encourage individual initiative and entrepreneurship, those who command political and social power must not be allowed to abuse it, especially in respect of the poor and the vulnerable. In this regard, South Africans must fight against all manifestations of racism, tribalism, religious and political intolerance, patriarchy and abuse of women and children. We must wage war against greed and the arrogant display of wealth. We must all campaign against the abuse of alcohol and drugs within our society.
We all have a duty to exercise maximum vigilance against forces that seek to subvert social transformation. There is absolutely no place in our society for groupings that organise themselves along the discredited apartheid racial lines with the aim of sowing hatred and division among our people. The demon of racism and tribalism must be confronted head on and defeated wherever and whenever it emerges. For human rights to thrive there cannot be any place in our society for organised crime, for corruption, both in the public and private sector, and for discrimination of one against another on any grounds whatsoever.
As mandated by the Constitution, the legislature, together with the Chapter 9 institutions, have the primary responsibility of ensuring that weaknesses on the part of government across all spheres that negatively affect government's responsibility for communities, including service provision and consultation, which often generates upheaval, must be highlighted. In light of this responsibility, all members of the legislature and those who represent Chapter 9 institutions must be above reproach. We argue that the greatest threat that we face as a country today towards the attainment of sustainability with regard to human rights is the prevalence of corruption, mismanagement of state resources and the lack or unacceptably slow pace of government policy implementation. These practises are not consistent with our Bill of Rights and the Constitution. Therefore, anybody, regardless of his or her status in society, found guilty of these practises must be isolated, exposed and held accountable. As the legislative arm of the state, we dare not fail in our responsibility in this regard.
In 2009, as an ongoing project of nation-building, the ANC committed itself to continue working together with all South Africans towards creating decent jobs, sustainable livelihoods, education and training, improved health care, rural development and the fight against crime and corruption. The organ of state that bears the primary responsibility to ensure this is the executive. All realists among us will agree that the pace by which this ideal society, with human rights for all, will be built is reliant, among other things, on the availability of resources, both financial and human, and of such resources being at the disposal of government and government agencies.
This government is correct in pursuing a mixed economy, with the state playing a major and interventionist role while co-operative and other forms of social and private ownership and private capital make their own contribution towards sustainable economic development. In my view, the state has a responsibility to encourage socially beneficial conduct on the part of private business, while ensuring that these investors are able to make reasonable returns on their investment. The current state of the global financial environment requires that South African economic and fiscal policies remain resilient to external factors beyond our control.
In his recent state of the nation address, the President outlined government's vision in addressing the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality. To succeed in this regard, it is important for government to focus on creating an enabling environment towards sustainable economic growth. It is also the duty of organised labour and business to make it possible that as many South Africans as possible, especially the youth, have decent jobs and sustainable livelihoods.
It is a violation of human rights when learners who are in the main black and from a poor society continue to be taught in unsuitable classrooms and on a hungry stomach. It is a violation of human rights when women and children are raped and killed and nobody seems to care. It is a violation of human rights when women and young girls are sold into slavery for prostitution and drug trafficking by drug lords. It is a violation of human rights when women are assaulted and stripped naked at taxi ranks just because their choice of dress code is not acceptable to all.
For as long as the South African child still has to walk for kilometres to school and cross flooding rivers on their way, and for as long as educators and parents lose focus of their responsibility for the education of all learners and students, this government must, without fear or favour, exercise its responsibility to eradicate the failures on the side of officials and educators and take them to task in terms of the implementation of government policy.
The commitment and efforts of this government to improve health care is commendable. No patient must die due to a lack of medication or equipment in our health care facilities even when sufficient funds have been budgeted for and allocated to these facilities. We are encouraged by the introduction of the National Health Insurance as well as the steps currently being taken to ensure that suitably qualified people are placed in charge of our hospitals and clinics. We call upon the pharmaceutical industry not to place profit before the wellbeing of our people.
Government has identified rural development as a priority area. Basic services like water, electricity, sanitation, roads and telephones remain a challenge. All these basic services are a prerequisite to economic development. Government needs to speed up the delivery of these services. Eighteen years, which we are into our democracy is a long time to wait for clean running water and electricity. Our women should not still be required to collect water from the river or firewood from the fields to maintain their households. These are the most basic of human rights and our people need to enjoy them today.
Our Bill of Rights guarantees that, and I quote:
Everyone has the right to have any dispute that can be resolved by the application of the law decided in a fair public hearing before a court or, where appropriate, another independent and impartial tribunal or forum.
In the interest of fairness, South Africans should not in this day and age have to defend themselves in a third or fourth language in our courts. Every accused person also has the right to have their trial begin and concluded without unreasonable delay. This human right is regularly flouted to the extent that there are a number of instances where South Africans are remanded in custody upwards of three years. In a case in KwaZulu-Natal, the length of detention before the conclusion of the case was nine years. We think it is important that our judicial system and the judiciary attend to such matters. Being incarcerated in an overcrowded cell is inhumane. Being incarcerated for even one day longer than necessary is a violation of one's right to freedom.
Working together, the state, business, organised labour and every South African citizen must contribute to building a society based on the best in human civilisation in terms of political and human freedoms and socioeconomic rights. This society must espouse the value that there are no superior or inferior South Africans. As South Africans, we must agree that there is no first-class or second-class citizen. We must guarantee that the colour of a person's skin is not what must define him or her, but rather the content of their being.
Until we succeed in establishing this society, the dream of lasting peace and prosperity will remain an illusion. The struggle for human rights for all must be sustained and nothing less than victory must be the end goal for all South Africans, black and white, rich and poor. The journey towards attaining universal human rights for all will not be easy, but acquiring anything worthwhile has never been easy. Aluta continua! [The struggle continues!] [Applause.]