|
|
South Africa: Citizens Must Nourish, Protect Freedom
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
BuaNews (Tshwane)
27 April 2008
Posted to the web 28 April 2008
Bathandwa Mbola
Morgenzon
As the country celebrates Freedom Day, the Mpumalanga government has called on the people of the province to collectively nourish, protect and entrench democratic freedom to sustain a caring and rights-based society.
"As we mark the 14th anniversary of freedom and democracy, we must continue to be inspired by our liberation struggle heroes and heroines whose gallantry and selfless sacrifice brought about democracy and freedom that we are all enjoying today," said Mpumalanga Premier Thabang Makwetla while addressing the provincial Freedom Day celebration.
Mr Makwetla told the crowd gathered at Morgenzon at the Lekwa Municipality on Sunday that the task of bringing about change, freedom and democracy would not be achieved within a "business as usual" mental frame towards the tasks that needed to be undertaken.
"In our time, we must be driven by selfless commitment to service, empowerment and development South African citizens, especially the poor and down-trodden, so that, they too, can taste the fruits of democracy and freedom," said Mr Makwetla. Today marks the 14th anniversary of the historic day when millions of South Africans stood in long queues despite to cast their ballots to vote and usher for democratically elected government whose main task was to transform, reconstruct, and develop the country in order to change the lives of all South Africans for the better.
The votes were a watershed moment that signalled the end of the brutal system of apartheid that was characterised by gross human rights violations, racial subjugation, and repression of human freedom and civil liberties. This year the day is being celebrated under the theme: " Business unusual: All hands on deck to speed up change." The premier explained that the theme for this year's Freedom Day celebrations evoked the spirit of national unity to speed up change. "Our work must be imbued with a strong sense urgency, speed and commitment to accelerate change and improve service delivery.
"Reminiscent of the same spirit and a sense of urgency with which the struggle for freedom and democracy was waged, we have a responsibility to speed up change in health, education, economic development and housing delivery so that we bring relief to the poor so that they experience the benefits of democracy," added Premier Makwetla. As the province celebrates Freedom Day, Mr Makwetla said the people of the province must celebrate the significant strides made in broadening access to basic services such as, electricity, clean water, and sanitation, housing and health care.
To date, he said a total of 583 505 households have access to electricity whilst 213 977 indigent households have access to Free Basic Electricity (54 percent). Of a total of 772 764 households, 601 178 households (constituting 77.8 percent) have access to water. "The implementation of our 'Water for All' flagship project is currently underway to address water backlog challenges in the province and to accelerate the provision of basic water services to all households by 2010."
He added that the municipalities in the province have prioritised initiatives to enhance the capacity of sewerage systems and accelerate the provision of decent sanitation to communities. On health and education, Mr Makwetla noted that despite challenges, the province was making progress in the provision to address them. As highlighted in the State of the Province Address in February this year, the premier said they are working on transforming the health delivery system to ensure that they address weaknesses in the delivery of health care.
|
At the same time he said the province is providing resources to increase the number of "no fee" schools to enable the poor to exercise their freedom of access to education so that the communities could fully enjoy possibilities of human freedom and self-fulfilment.
Freedom for all.?
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 BuaNews. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
