House Chair, hon Chairperson of the NCOP, Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP, Ministers and Deputy Minister, present in the House, the human rights debate today provides an occasion to take stock of where the country is and our quest to deepen a human rights culture and advance especially socio-economic rights to reverse the devastating effects of poverty, inequality and economic deprivation which are the direct consequence of colonialism and apartheid which constitutes the primary focus of my contribution to this important debate.
The Constitution has its roots mainly in four documents or processes
- the 1923 Bill of Rights, as mentioned by the Minister here, the African Claims of 1943, the Women's Charter in 1954, the Freedom Charter in 1955 and the ANC's 1988 Constitutional Principles for a Democratic South Africa.
In May 1923, at its conference in Bloemfontein, the ruling party which is the ANC, adopted a resolution on a Bill of Rights. It called for equal citizenship, access to resources including land ...
IsiXhosa:
... ebaluleke kakhulu hayi le nto yenziwa yiDA ithi xa inika abantu iziqinisekisi mnini zamatyotyombe, ime ngaloo nto. Sifuna umhlaba, hayi iziqinisekisi mnini zamatyotyombe. [Kwaqhwatywa.]
English:
...as well as fair representation in government. This tradition was further consolidated through the African Claims document adopted in 1943, as a response to the 1941 Atlantic Charter of the European Allied forces after the Second World War.
Fighting crime has always been one of the priority areas in terms of the ANC's 2014 election manifesto, to which extensive resources have been placed and viewed the safety and security of the community in South Africa as a priority.
The Constitution of our country guarantees every person the right to life and the right to security and freedom of a person which includes among other things, the right to freedom from all other forms of violence. The Constitution further guarantees that adequate protection of such rights as fundamental to the well-being, social and economic development of every person. The ANC-led government has
committed itself to fighting crime in whatever form it manifests itself in our society.
The human rights are the birth rights and inherent to every single one of us. The post-World War Two periods have pre-occupied itself with the issue of human rights, recognizing the atrocities that had pertained then. Therefore, we can appreciate why even the Vienna Declaration impressed upon the United Nations to uphold human rights as an essential part of democracy and development and to ensure that it makes concerted efforts to ensure they prevail.
It is in this regard that we cannot divorce a nation's democracy and development from its human rights and the exercise thereof. While democracy, on the one hand, is the expression of a people's choice for a political system of their own, human rights are a means by which that society interfaces with their political, social, cultural and economic environment. It can therefore, be argued that human rights are a necessary ingredient of democracy and development.
In the last two decades since the transition to democracy and the establishment of a democratic SA Police Service, SAPS, South Africa continues to experience alarmingly high rate of crime, particularly violent crime. This is evident for instance by successive increases
in contact crime especially murder, robbery and other violent crimes. Violence against vulnerable and marginalized groups remains stubbornly high, compromising the ability of these individuals to play an active role in their communities and society at large.
The SA Police Service continue to ensure that barriers to reporting cases of rape, sexual abuse and domestic violence are sufficiently addressed to reporting and minimize secondary victimization. Seemingly, intractable challenges such as gangsterism, drugs and alcohol abuse underpinned by increasingly sophisticated and violent organized criminal enterprises have resulted in our communities being mired in a cycle of violence and trauma. Despite these challenges, SAPS has made significant strides in dealing with serious and violent crime particularly in the Western Cape.
IsiXhosa:
Bekukho abantu abangakwazi ukulungqina olu suku lwamaLungelo oLuntu. Aboo bantu bakhona apha eNtshona Koloni ingakumbi kwisibhedlele ekuthiwa yiKhayelitsha District Hospital. Izigulana ezilaliswa phaya azikwazi ukuba zizithethelele. Kufa izigulana imihla nezolo ngenxa yokuqeshwa kwabongikazi abangagqibelelanga. Aba bantu babulawa ngabom ngesitofu ingakumbi kula ndawo babelekela kuyo.
Apha eNtshona Koloni sithe xa sibiza uMEC ukuba akhe aze kuphendula kunye nabanye abalawuli benza ola rhwaphilizo bebelunqanda. Bathe basebenzisa iimali zikarhulumente ukukhusela uNomafrench nabalawuli ukuba bangezi ukuza kuphendula. Ngelo xesha abantu abayekanga ukufa eKhayelitsha. Kungcono kwa Esidimeni kunala ndawo iyiKhayelitsha.