Deputy Chair of the NCOP, hon Speakers and guests, the reason we celebrate Human Rights Day is precisely because we are human.
As South Africans our rights are enshrined in the Constitution. Chapter 2 of the Bill of Rights states that the state must respect, protect, promote and fulfil these rights in the Bill of Rights. It further states that everyone has the inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected.
The effects of apartheid on the dignity of the South African people was abominable, which is why one of the main goals of the democratically elected government post-1994, was to restore dignity to the people by abolishing poverty and through the provision of housing, water and sanitation.
Today, as we sit here in the year 2015 - 21 years into democracy - this scourge of the rights of the South African people through the violation of their dignity still prevails. We have to ask ourselves: Why? Why is it that the number of people living in informal settlements is rising every year? In 1994 the backlog was 1,5 million; in 2015 it is in excess of 2 million. In actual fact, over the past five years the delivery of houses has dropped by 25%. Why? [Interjections.]
The struggle for housing is the struggle for freedom - a freedom that is denied to too many in our democratic South Africa. The logo of our national Department of Water and Sanitation is, "Water is life, sanitation is dignity". When you consider that this very department has underspent its budget by a staggering 48%, coupled with the ever-increasing number of bucket toilets still in existence, it boggles the mind. This underspending is a clear indication of the neglect of the rights of our people.
The SA Human Rights Commission conducted a study and compiled a report titled, Water and Sanitation, Life and Dignity: Accountability to People who are Poor, which provides a unique look at the reality faced by rural communities. This report was drawn up after an in-depth study of the level of access to water and sanitation in the poorest communities of all the nine provinces. Now what is even more mind-boggling is the statement by the previous Minister of this department, Ms Edna Molewa, who said that this report was outdated, baseless and misleading. It boggles the mind.
I think it is time our government of the day faces up to reality and recognises that by failing to provide these basic human services they are failing to uphold the basic human rights of all South Africans.
The 2006 Nobel Peace Price winner, Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, said, and I quote:
Poverty is the absence of all human rights. The frustration, hostility and anger generated by abject poverty cannot sustain peace in any society. Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty.
Never has this rung more true than it does in the current context of life in South Africa, where abject poverty is still a harsh reality for millions and peace is still a dream unrealised. Peace is not lasting.
Human Rights Day was formerly known as Sharpeville Day. In fact, 55 years ago today, on Saturday, 19 March 1960, Robert Sobukwe, president of the PAC, not the ANC ... [Interjections.] ... the PAC, not the ANC, announced the intention to embark on an antipass campaign on 21 March 1960.
Coincidentally, it was stressed that this campaign was to be carried out in the spirit of nonviolence, but we all know what ensued. I put it to you, hon members, that this direct violation of human rights, which is ongoing in South Africa today, is a direct result of the neglect of the rights of South Africans.
Since 2009 there have been 3 000 protests, and counting, for housing and water in what is supposed to be a free and democratic South Africa. When a young 15-year-old boy was shot and killed by police during a protest for water in Mpumalanga earlier this month, the rights of all South Africans were violated. When a young six-year-old boy died in a pit toilet in Limpopo in 2014, the rights of all South Africans were violated. When 34 striking miners in Marikana were shot and killed by the police, the rights of all South Africans were violated. [Applause.] When a young man was shot and killed in Sebokeng in 2014 while protesting for housing, the rights of all South Africans were violated. The list of South African citizens killed during protests for basic services - basic human rights guaranteed to us in our Constitution - is a long one.
Hon members, fellow South Africans, we can put a stop to this violation of our rights. We can put a stop to a government that has forgotten its people by voting next year, in 2016, for a government that will be a clean government. [Time expired.] [Applause.]