South Africa’s painful past and hard-won triumphs serve as a reminder that although much has been achieved, building a better life for all is still a work in progress.
This was the message by President Cyril Ramaphosa as he led the launch the Milestones of Freedom campaign at the Union Buildings on Thursday.
The campaign is held under the theme: 'Honouring the Past. Delivering the Future', and is aimed at reflecting on South Africa’s journey to freedom and the interventions government has made to build a capable State.
This year, several significant and defining milestones in South Africa’s democratic journey are observed. These include:
- The 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution;
- The 50th anniversary of the 1976 youth uprisings;
- The 70th anniversary of the anti-pass campaign spearheaded by South African women, and
- The 60th anniversary of the forced removals from District Six.
“When we remember these milestones, we do not see them as artefacts of the past. We see them as the foundations on which we need to build.
“They are a reminder of the work we still have to do,” President Ramaphosa said.
He acknowledged that although government has made great strides in living up to the promise of the Constitution, many South Africans still face challenges.
“There are still South Africans who go to bed hungry. [There are still] young people without work, communities living in fear of criminals, and there are still South Africans waiting for the dignity that freedom promised.
“We do not gather here to declare that our long walk to freedom is complete.
“Rather, we gather here to acknowledge the great progress that we have achieved together as free South Africans and affirm our commitment to complete the task that history has bestowed upon us,” he said.
A government at work
Despite these challenges, the strides made since the fall of apartheid cannot be understated.
“Since the dawn of democracy, millions who lived in darkness now have electricity. Millions who carried water from distant rivers now have clean water flowing from a tap. Together, we have built millions of homes and thousands of clinics and schools.
“Through the provision of social grants and free basic services, we have improved the quality of life of children, the elderly, persons with disabilities and families across the country,” President Ramaphosa highlighted.
For the women and girl children of South Africa, government has “opened doors that were once bolted shut”.
“Women hold positions of leadership in government, in our courts, boardrooms, universities and colleges, and in many other areas of our national life.
“We have done much to advance the education of the girl child, achieving gender parity in access to schooling and seeing female learners excelling in matric and in further studies. We have put in place laws and programmes that advance the position of women in the workplace and in the economy more broadly.
“We have placed the fight against gender-based violence and femicide at the centre of our national agenda, because a country where women are not safe is a country that is not yet free. The work is far from done, but we can say that through our collective efforts the daughters of Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophie de Bruyn are rising,” he said.
The barriers to accessing education have also been torn down to nurture the seeds of potential in all children.
“For our young people, we have made school accessible to more children than ever before, with no-fee schools and daily meals for those who would otherwise learn on an empty stomach.
“Through financial aid, we have opened the gates of universities and colleges to the children of workers and the poor.
“And we are investing in the skills, the enterprises and the opportunities that turn the potential of young South Africans into meaningful livelihoods,” President Ramaphosa said.
The pain of the people of District Six who – together with millions of other South Africans – were forcefully removed from their homes are also not in vain with land rights protected by the Constitution for all South Africans.
“We have made great progress in returning the land to its original owners through our land restitution process. We have undertaken extensive redistribution of white-owned agricultural land to black farmers. We have given many rural dwellers security of tenure.
“Despite this progress, this work is not complete. We are committed to continue until we can say with confidence that the land belongs to all who work it and need it.
“This is what freedom has built,” the President added.
Government is also working hard in areas including:
- Building an economy that is inclusive and growing.
- Expanding the pathways from the classroom to the workplace.
- Intensifying the fight against poverty and hunger.
- Building a health system that serves all people.
- Confronting crime and corruption without fear or favour.
- Building a capable, ethical State that serves the people.
Standing together
President Ramaphosa called on ordinary South Africans to embody the spirit of those who experienced the brutality of the apartheid government and chose to stand against it.
For those milestones, the President added, were made by “ordinary people, working together, who decided that they would not rely on others to determine their fate”.
“That is the spirit we must rekindle. Freedom is not a monument we visit once a year. It is a responsibility we carry every day.
“So today, we issue a call to activism, a call to service, a call to participate. This is a call to all of us, to volunteer in a school, to mentor a young person, to clean a street, to grow a business. It is a call to serve on a school governing body, to report corruption, to prevent violence against women.
“It is a call to vote in every election and to hold to account those that are elected into public office. This is a call to register to vote this weekend, on the 20th and 21st of June,” he said.
The President urged South Africans to honour the heroes of the past by participating in the National Dialogue and have their voices heard once more and contribute in the conversation about the South Africa they want to live in.
“We must attend the public dialogues that are going to take place in our wards, in our sectors and in our organisations. We should add our voice to the millions of people who will be charting a new way forward for our country.
“This nation belongs to all of us, and it will be only as strong, as just and as free as we are willing to make it. As we launch the Milestones of Freedom, let us hold all four of these anniversaries in our hands at once: the women, the children and the dispossessed and the Constitution that turned their dreams into a promise of a better future.
“We are the inheritors of their courage. We are the keepers of their dream. And we are, every one of us, the authors of what South Africa will become. Let us, together, build the South Africa of which our forebears dared to dream, united in our diversity, equal in our dignity and free at last,” President Ramaphosa concluded. – SAnews.gov.za
