Pretoria – Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu says the restoration of human dignity is one the best aspects of the country’s freedom and democracy.
The minister was giving an address at the Vaal University of Technology on Thursday, titled ‘20 years of Human Rights: Successes and Challenges’.
South Africa today commemorates Human Rights Day under the theme ‘Celebrating 20 years of changing lives through human rights’.
Minister Sisulu said dignity was one of the enduring gifts of freedom.
“We have created a new nation that is democratic in form, humanitarian in content and egalitarian in outlook. This new nation is the lasting gift those who died for our freedom have so generously bestowed upon us,” she said.
On 21 March 1960, 69 people were brutally killed, while 180 more sustained injuries when police fired on a peaceful crowd that had gathered in Sharpeville to protest against the Pass laws.
Many other people were killed in other parts of the country. The incident became to be known as the Sharpeville Massacre and it exposed the apartheid government’s deliberate violation of human rights to the world.
The day is now commemorated annually to underscore government’s commitment to ensuring that every person who lives in South Africa enjoys equal rights.
Minister Sisulu said a lot has been done since the country attained freedom in 1994 to reverse the legacy of apartheid.
“The world too thinks that South Africa is a far better place than 20 years ago. According to international institutions such as the Global Competitiveness Survey, the African Competitiveness Report, World Economic Forum, the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank, South Africa leads the continent in financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation.”
According to the Africa Competitiveness Report, published in 2013 by the World Economic Forum, South Africa is ranked in the number two spot out of 38 African countries in terms of economic competitiveness.
The report reviews the degree of competitiveness of Africa's economies on an annual basis. South Africa is rated as being on par with innovative countries such as India and Brazil. – SAnews.gov.za
