The following speech was delivery by GOOD MP, Shaun August in Parliament today.
Honourable Chairperson
It is challenging to celebrate human rights when the conditions in which so many of our people live would be aptly described as human wrongs.
These conditions are not the pandemic’s fault, but what Covid has done is expose the injustices wrought by gross inequality.
It’s not that they weren’t there, but more a case of our choosing not to see them.
Pre-Covid, the State at its various levels commonly held functions in communities to mark Human Rights Day, and the contribution of heroes to the creation of our Constitution with its Bill of Rights.
The routes to and from these event locations were generally tidied up, so when the Ministers and senior officials swept by they wouldn’t see the filth.
But the truth is that the manner in which many of our people live is a human wrong.
The conditions in which they are forced to live contribute to an environment in which people cannot reach their potential, abuse substances, drop out, feel hopeless, commit crimes – and perpetrate human rights abuses.
It is this environment – this vicious cycle – that fuels gender-based violence, gangsterism and other social ills.
While media coverage might suggest otherwise, with its regular focus on middle class victims, the overwhelming majority of human rights violations are perpetrated against the poor.
Living in townships like Zwide and Nyanga places you firmly at the coalface of human rights abuse.
Chairperson…
As MPs, we must take a large proportion of blame for allowing this situation to continue.
In the DA led Western Cape, where I live, the province argued in court, in the Tafelberg land case, that it was under no obligation to unlock public land for the purpose of providing affordable housing in well located areas.
ANC-led provinces are less blunt but have made little more progress in unstitching the apartheid Group Areas Act and moving towards achieving spatial and environmental justice.
Yet millions of residents are without land or shelter.
When officials, such as those in the Gauteng Health Department balloon tenders to skim millions of Rands off the transactions for themselves, they are not just stealing but contributing to the continued perpetration of human wrongs.
In the Northern Cape’s Hantam, communities live without water.
On the Cape Flats, gangsters roam the streets making them unsafe for good people – with women and children most at risk.
Access to decent health care, water and safe streets are basic human rights. Our people also have rights to decent education, job opportunities – and equal services in their communities.
Chairperson…
GOOD appeals to each and every citizen this Human Rights Month to each play a part in upholding the rights of a family, neighbour or colleague.
To our fellow parliamentarians, and State officials everywhere, we say: Accept the responsibility you’ve been given to fix our broken society and restore our morality and compassion.
The birth of democracy laid the foundations for our journey towards equal rights, equal services and the sanctity of the dignity of all South Africans.
We can’t afford more twists and turns.
Let’s turn on the GPS and complete the journey with a dash of speed.
I thank you.