As the nation celebrates the 100th anniversary of President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and Nontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu, South Africans should use the occasion to unite and build the country, says Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa.
“We should use these occasions to inspire us to intensify our efforts to realise their vision of a united South Africa in which all live in peace with equal rights and opportunities,” Minister Mthethwa said.
He was addressing the media in Cape Town on Thursday during the launch of Human Rights Month, which is held under the theme ‘The year of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela: Promoting and deepening a human rights culture across society’.
This year’s National Human Rights Month Celebration coincides with the centenary of Mandela and Sisulu.
“Despite the efforts of our government and the people of our country to consign poverty and white privilege to history, the resilient fault lines of poverty, unemployment and inequality stubbornly persist.
“The Human Rights Commission 2016 report attest to this and situates it within socio-historical divisions of the past, with resultant income inequalities principally along the contours of race and gender,” Minister Mthethwa said.
He said government will work to rekindle the vision of a democratic society in which all citizens have equal opportunity to determine their own destiny.
“Therefore our efforts at fundamental change represent a social experiment which resonates with humanity’s progressive endeavours. As in the past when it touched the conscience of humanity, South Africa is a giant social laboratory, the success or failure of whose undertakings has global implications,” Minister Mthethwa said.
He said the realisation of the Constitutional injunctions is the task of every citizen and various sectors of our society across the board. – SAnews.gov.za
