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21 March 2009

Programme directors
MEC for Housing, Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Mr Mike Mabuyakhulu MEC for Health, Ms Peggy Nkonyeni
MEC for Finance and Economic Development Dr Z L Mkhize
MEC for Agriculture and Environmental Affairs Mr M Mthimkhulu
All other MECs present
Your Worship, the Mayor of eThekwini, Councillor Obed Mlaba
Members of the legislature
Mayors and councillors
Traditional and religious leaders
Director-General Dr Kwazi Mbanjwa
Heads of department and government officials
KwaZulu-Natal Chief Electoral Officer Mr M Mosery
Professor Karthy Govender
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen

Good morning to you all, as well as those, who are listening to us on radio and watching us from the public viewing areas at Jozini, Newcastle, Ladysmith, uMsinga, Umzimkhulu and Vryheid.

We are gathered here today, joining the rest of our country, to celebrate National Human Rights Day 2009. Commemorating Human Rights Day, in South Africa, is significant to remind ourselves of what happened in the past, so that it never happens again.

Human rights are those basic and fundamental rights to which every person for the simple reason of being human is entitled to. These rights are inalienable a person is entitled to them forever.

Chapter 3 of the interim Constitution introduced legally protected fundamental rights, to South Africa, for the first time. Fundamental Human Rights are now entrenched in Chapter 2 of the 1996 Constitution.

The Bill of Rights is, arguably, the part of the Constitution that has had the greatest impact on life in our country. As the first words of this chapter say, “this Bill of Rights is a cornerstone of democracy in South Africa. It enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom.”

The Bill of Rights does not only apply vertically (from the state, downwards, to its citizens) it also applies, where applicable, horizontally (between one citizen, or private body, and another).

Human Rights fall into two broad categories first and second generation rights.
Civil and political rights, those traditionally included in Constitutions around the world, tend to be considered first-generation rights. These rights, which were given expression by the enlightenment thinkers, were the first to be recognised by law. They begin with the basic right to life, dignity, equality and privacy. But they also include the fundamental freedoms associated with democracy, freedom of expression, association, assembly, opinion, belief and religion and movement.

Second generation rights are those connected to the social and economic features of life. South Africa is one of, only, a few countries in the world to entrench rights such as access to food, water, housing, healthcare and social security section 27. The right to education and the special rights of children also fit in here.

Third generation rights a relatively new field in human rights relate to the environment and development, as well as culture and language. This is when a government lists development, the protection of the environment or the protection of a people’s culture, heritage and language, as one of its priorities. Such a government is then governing through human rights. Since 2004, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government has prioritised these rights, through going out and meeting with communities and listening to their views and aspirations. We are, thus, governing through human rights.

All the same, one may ask, how, and why, did South Africa, one of the most obvious abusers of human rights in the world before 1994, end up with a well articulated and growing culture of human rights?

The answer is simple. Human rights abuses were the cornerstone of colonial and apartheid rule in South Africa. Therefore, the inculcation of a culture of human rights had to be the cornerstone of democratic rule in the liberated South Africa.

This is why we are here today to cement our liberation, to remember all those who sacrificed their lives trying to halt the free-flow of Human Rights abuses Griffiths Mxenge, Victoria Mxenge, Dorothy Nyembe, Monty Naicker and many others, some of whom would be enjoying the fruits of liberation today, had it not been for the direct brutality of apartheid.

We are also gathered here today to officially launch our District Human Rights Forums, under the theme, “KwaZulu-Natal advancing peace, democracy and human rights.”

These forums will assist us in ensuring that our citizens and their children, in a village, school or municipal district, receive effective and efficient services from government as well as proper treatment from their fellow citizens. Everything else, that defines their lives, should be aligned with the broad practice of human rights for all, by all.

So brutal was apartheid rule that its henchmen did not mind destroying whole communities for, merely, voicing a desire to be respected and treated as human beings.

The 21 March first shot to prominence, in 1960, when jumpy apartheid policemen fired at a crowd of black people who had converged on the Sharpeville Police Station to protest against the most hated pass laws. They shot and killed 69 children, women and men and wounded 180 others.

Again on 21 March 1985, 20 residents of Langa Township in Port Elizabeth were shot dead by apartheid soldiers who opened fire on a crowd of the people who were marching from the township towards town to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre.

The pass or “dompas”, as the apartheid oppressors preferred to call it, imposed a life of subservience, intentional impoverishment and denial of human rights and human dignity to the vast majority of the people of our country.

Learning from the past

Since 2004, the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government has laid a solid foundation for advancing peace, democracy and human rights in our province. We have strengthened and consolidated the Human Rights Programme of government.

Through the citizen’s Charter, a human rights-based approach to service delivery and development has been introduced in KwaZulu-Natal. Human Rights Day reminds us why it is important to look back and never to commit the same mistakes again.

Our Constitution carries, at its foundation, the protection and advancement of the human rights of all the citizens of South Africa. If that was the overarching vision, then the Constitution needed to be turned into reality and that meant turning around the huge and brutal apartheid legacy. We needed to make provision for houses, electricity, land reform, education and public works.
Access to clean water, primary health care and jobs are among a host of provisions that government, progressively, ensured comes to fruition.

In the last 15 years, we have made incredible in-roads into turning back the legacy of the past, and making an impact, in providing a better life for all our people in South Africa.

But, this also meant building, from scratch, a human rights culture, and the organisational forums, so that the citizens of our country could access rights, debate legislation and broaden the ambit of human rights to more and more people.

In this country, we have been fortunate to have the inspiration and support structures. Our leaders have sacrificed their lives, in the fight for human rights, and were determined to use government to pursue this goal.

The foundation of our post-apartheid society is based on the protection and advancement of human rights. It is important to emphasise that during the era of colonialism and apartheid, this was not the case. It was a history of oppression, discrimination and dispossession, which denied our people the basic elements of human rights.

In many instances, we had to start at the very beginning in 1994. The adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa was the clearest signal that the Africa National Congress (ANC)-led Government was putting the quest for equality and dignity at the very centre of its vision for a free South Africa.

KwaZulu-Natal inculcating a human rights culture

In KwaZulu-Natal, it was only from 2004, that we, as government, strengthened and consolidated a human rights programme. We have made numerous interventions in cases where human rights violations were evident. These include:

* when three children were brutally murdered by their father, at Ngome, we defended their right to life and justice prevailed
* when 14 children, at uMsinga, could not access their right to education, we assisted them and they all now attend school
* when the sugar cane serial murders occurred at Umzinto, we actively supported the affected families of victims
* when the rights of women to wear pants were violated at Umlazi, we assisted them at the Equality Court
* when an old woman of Verulam could not, for four months, bury her son, we assisted her to bury her son
* when an old woman was abused by her daughter and grand-children at Matikwe, we intervened and placed her in a safe place.

As government, we have implemented several programmes to inculcate a human rights culture in our province. Among these is operation Khuz’umhlola which sends a strong message of “reprimanding an unacceptable habit”. In 2005/06 the Department of Community Safety and Liaison created Z-Cards on the Victims Charter and Domestic Violence Act. We also produced an information brochure for victims of crime based on the Service Charter for Victims of Crime in South Africa. These were distributed to all police stations in the province. The information brochure on the victims’ charter is available in both isiZulu and English.

In partnership with Absa and the Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, we established and equipped five victim friendly facilities in the Umzimkhulu area. These victim friendly facilities were officially opened on 26 January 2007 at Umzimkhulu main, Ibisi, Gowan-Lea and Intsikeni South Afircan Police Service (SAPS).

We have also launched victim friendly facilities at Wembezi SAPS, Umbumbulu South Afircan Police Service (SAPS), Esikhawini SAPS and Gamalakhe SAPS. We are currently undertaking a women safety audit through identifying and addressing daily crime threats and fear of crime experienced by women.

We will continue to fulfil our obligation as government, that of respecting and protecting the human rights of the people of KwaZulu-Natal. We will never fold our hands and look when there are still men who are raping their own children.

Since 2004, we have made tremendous strides in KwaZulu-Natal. One of our major victories is the defence of the rights of children. In response to the passing of the Children’s Act, we have conducted workshops across the province, seeking to educate both adults and children, about their rights and responsibilities. The response has been incredible and this work is continuing.

Alongside this, we have introduced a children’s Parliament. This is the incubator of the province and, hopefully, some of South Africa’s new leadership will emerge from here. This reflects our government’s commitment to nurturing leadership qualities in our children. Today, we share the platform with the child premier of our province. All of us, I am certain, look forward to what the younger generation have, as their vision, for the Province of KwaZulu-Natal.

All over this province, we are conducting awareness campaigns, encouraging people not only to know their rights, but to take advantage of the institutional structures available to them to uphold their rights and to hold government accountable.

Fora

Since 2006, when we established the Office on the Rights of Older Persons, our senior citizens have a voice. We have created a platform where they meet and discuss issues of importance. The KwaZulu-Natal Senior Citizens Forum was formed to influence government to cater for the rights of senior citizens in our province.

Today, we launch the District Human Rights Forums, of the various district municipalities, to consolidate the respect, protection and defence of human rights. This also places human rights as an integral part of KwaZulu-Natal governance and service delivery.

The establishment of these forums is an effort to move forward in strengthening and inculcating a culture of human rights. This will enable communities greater participation in presenting their complaints or suggestions in a simple, accessible and reliable manner with the certainty that they will receive due consideration. The forums will serve as an access point to the human rights protection system, for the most vulnerable groups, at community level.

My message to you today, therefore, is to access these forums, learn about your rights, claim your rights and go out into your community and teach others. We need to make human rights our motto, which we live by, everyday.

It is appropriate to reflect on the words of the former United Nations General-Secretary, Kofi Annan, “human rights education is much more than a lesson in schools or a theme for a day; it is a process to equip people with the tools they need to live lives of security and dignity let us continue to work together to develop and nurture in future generations a culture of human rights, to promote freedom, security and peace in all nations.”

It is my belief that to be a human being is to be a human rights agitator. But it is more than that.

To build a human rights culture is to be able to argue that spreading human rights to children, for example, is not against culture and tradition, but is part of every culture and tradition. To build a human rights culture is to ensure that victims of abuse are supported. To build a human rights culture is to ensure that violations are reported and violators held accountable.

Political leadership and commitment

This is precisely what our government is dedicated to. Its priority is to ensure that the most vulnerable in our society, people with disabilities, older persons, women, people living with HIV and AIDS and children are provided with the mechanisms and forums to realise, protect and advance our rights.

Everyday, we must ensure that one more person with a disability can get access to their workplace; one older person can access a grant, one person living with HIV and AIDS is assisted, one child is protected from abuse and one more woman takes up a leadership position. This will, not only, change lives but the very texture of our society.

I want to say, in all humility, on this crucial day in our calendar that we have made incredible progress, whilst recognising that, together, we can still do more. I hope that every one of you here is imbued with the spirit of human rights and are inspired to go out into the world and spread this gospel.

It has been the vision of our government that, while ensuring that the diverse culture and traditions of our province are protected, an overarching human rights culture unites all of us. I hope today, when we look around this stadium, we will get a sense that, through persistence and working together, we are well on our way to fulfilling that dream.

We still have a long road to travel, but the guiding hand of human rights lights up our path. It is something that we must not allow to become a one day event that we celebrate every once a year, but something we carry in our hearts, something we live by and bring to bear in our everyday life.

It must be something, to paraphrase Martin Luther King; we make a career of "whatever career you may choose for yourself doctor, lawyer, teacher let me propose a vocation to be pursued along with it. Become a dedicated fighter for civil rights. Make it a central part of your life. It will make you a better doctor, a better lawyer, a better teacher. It will enrich your spirit as nothing else possibly can. It will give you that rare sense of nobility that can only spring from love and selflessly helping your fellow man. Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for human rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a great nation of your country and a finer world to live in.”

Together, we can do more in advancing human rights in KwaZulu-Natal.

Masisukume Sakhe!

Thank you

Issued by: Office of the Premier, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
21 March 2009