Johannesburg - The government of the ruling ANC has been accused of reversing the human rights gains made in 1994. These are the sentiments shared by ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
On Tuesday, Cosatu joined millions of South Africans in commemorating the 69 heroes and heroines who died during the Sharpeville Massacre.
South Africa observed human rights celebrations marking 63 years since the Sharpeville Massacre, which saw police shoot down the brave men and women who had joined a protest against the pass boycott outside the Sharpeville police station.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, during his keynote address in De Aar, Northern Cape, said failure to provide basic services to citizens was a clear infringement of basic human rights, which are enshrined in the country’s Constitution.
He added that it was his administration’s objective to improve the provision of services.
"We are working to improve the functioning of local government, which carries the greatest responsibility for the provision of these services," he said at De Aar Stadium.
In a statement on Tuesday, Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said that in spite of the sacrifices of those who died fighting for the realisation of their basic human rights, many South Africans were still battling under the colonial legacy of inequality.
He said the policies of the post-apartheid administration had failed to address the vestiges of inequality, poverty, and unemployment.
"Despite these sacrifices, the policy choices made by successive governments have failed to deal with the essence of colonialism and apartheid colonialism. The colonial and apartheid economic and political policy platform is firmly intact, and we remain the most unequal society in the world, according to the World Bank," he said.
During his key note address in Sharpeville, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said the ANC had reversed the gains of the democratic transition of 1994.
"The ANC government has failed to provide a better life for all and abandoned the promise of our Constitution of an inclusive and prosperous future for our country. We cannot accept this," Mashaba said.
He said the only way to ensure the realisation of basic human rights would be to vote the ANC out of power in the upcoming general elections of 2024.
"The 2024 elections offer South Africans the best possible opportunity to replace the corrupt and dysfunctional ANC with an ethical coalition government that will reignite the promise of 1994 and restore the basic human rights the victims of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre fought for.
"For too long, the ANC-led government has slowly eroded the gains made since the 1994 elections and has infringed on the rights of South Africans by neglecting our public infrastructure, such as railways and roads, delivering unreliable electricity, and supplying deteriorating quality water," he added.
The Star