On March 21, South Africa celebrated Human Rights Day, which is the reminder of the massacre that took place in Sharpeville in 1960 when 69 people were shot and killed by the apartheid police while protesting against the pass laws.
For almost seven decades, South Africa has been commemorating the day. When the new government came to power in 1994, it declared March 21 a public holiday, calling it Human Rights Day, on which the country would remember the heroes and heroines who laid their lives down for the emancipation of the black masses.
Through this, it was expected that all those who live in the country would be afforded equal rights. This was to be treated as a constitutional right, guided by the Constitution as the supreme law of the country.
Yet, for the men and women who call South Africa home, things have changed for the worse. Millions are unemployed. Millions are living below the breadline.
South Africa is fast becoming a welfare state, with millions depending on the government’s social grants. The crime rate is out of control. Almost 100 law-abiding citizens are murdered every day.
Women and children are no longer safe, even in their own homes. They are attacked, raped and sometimes murdered by their spouses or partners. It is no longer a shock to hear of a woman who has been killed, burnt or chopped up, with some of her body parts missing. Women’s body parts have been found in the fridges of some suspects. Some have been found buried in shallow graves.
Children are kidnapped, some of them raped, and their bodies found days later dumped in landfills and other such places. Where are the human rights in a country where a person’s life is no longer respected? The police have failed to provide society with the security it deserves.
It has thus become apparent that safety and security have become a sacred right for a few – those who can afford to hire for themselves the best security.
Unless the government takes the situation seriously, criminals will continue killing innocent citizens, because they know that there will be no consequences.
There are countless other social ills that bedevil South Africa. Children are no longer safe at school.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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