THIS past Sunday the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation did its annual remembrance event to mark the anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960.
Together with scores of young people, we paid our respects to those buried at the Philindaba Cemetery. The programme thereafter moved to the museum and the old police station where the massacre the massacre started.
Young people learnt firsthand about the horrors of racism and what some of its worst consequences were. They also learnt how Sharpeville was the place chosen by former President Nelson Mandela to sign the new constitution into law in 1996. This was his way of indicating that the new human rights-based constitution would come to replace the old racist one, which enabled Sharpeville and other massacres in apartheid South Africa.
In all of these massacres, the victims were black and the authorising body, the white apartheid government. The only time that white people were killed in such numbers and style was during the Anglo-Boer War and the 1922 white mine workers strike. Talks of white genocide being perpetrated by a black majority government are still claims that need to be proven by their proponents in South Africa and the USA.
A lot of the day’s discussions centered on what is human rights.
A young person said to me that it was rights that enabled anybody to be human. By this, the person meant that it was the things that allowed anybody to live a life without hunger, ill health and inadequate shelter, access to water, electricity, sanitation, etc. The person went further to say that to be fully human also required a person to have access to information, education, work opportunities, and cultural and sporting possibilities. They lastly mentioned the importance of safety and security, and an efficient and effective government that was ethical and free of corruption.
This deep understanding of human rights did not come about on its own but as a result of a year-long programme of civic education and exposure to key historical sites and moments. Their exposure to the life and legacy of Ahmed Kathrada has also been a major contribution to their level of human rights awareness.
Our state of human rights today is incomparable to its almost complete absence before 1990, for the majority of people. This is, however, not something we should take for granted.
Across the world, we are witnessing a rapid erosion of human rights. In many parts of the world, from India, Pakistan and the USA to Russia, China, Israel, Zimbabwe and others, there are detentions without trial, banning of media institutions, and the closure of the internet. The judiciary is less independent than any democracy requires, and the elections are either manipulated or their outcomes influenced by tech companies.
The clampdown on freedom of association and expression is rife as is the complete change of education systems, which have become propaganda arms of particular political ideologies.
The clampdown on human rights organisations as well as other civil society organisations complete the erosion of human rights defenders and voices. The lives of people rarely improve under these anti-human rights regimes.
In South Africa, some would argue that the biggest offender of human rights is the government and the political elite who constitute it. This argument is not hard to refute when it is clear that corruption and maladministration have contributed to South Africa having the status of being the most unequal country in the world, with an almost 40% unemployment rate.
The destruction of municipalities has mean that the basics of life for people such as water, electricity and sanitation as well as transport and road infrastructure are no longer services that can be expected to be delivered. These have become the new havens for the mafia syndicates in our country. Where cases have gone to court such as in eThekwini, they have revealed the extensive involvement of politicians and public servants at their core.
A recent quality of life study in Gauteng by the Gauteng City Region observatory has shown extensive downward trends in how citizens perceive their quality of life.
We failed to build on the solid human rights foundation bequeathed to us by the constitution. This failure has allowed racists of old and new to come out of the woodwork with their mantras about black failure being uttered brazenly here and in the USA.
Fortunately, we have never been a country that is defined by the quality of its government in the past and today. The multitudes of human rights defenders have shown resilience in their day-to-day work of defending and promoting human rights. They need your support.
The words of Kathrada seem the most appropriate today when he said the following as part of his acceptance of the Freedom of the City of Johannesburg. In this he links the basics of human rights to what our children need in South Africa.
“We dare not for a moment forget that there is no dignity in poverty, hunger, unemployment, homelessness, schools without textbooks and much more...
"We can only be satisfied and happy when every child:
- Wakes up in warm house
- Has a good nutritious breakfast
- Is able to say goodbye to both working parents
- Goes to school in safe and reliable transport
- Is met by teachers who are there on time, ready and able to teach
- Has the necessary textbooks when the school year starts
- Has access to a decent library and science labs
- Participates in sports, music and poetry and knows the history of the country
- Sees everybody as equal irrespective of their race or religion
- Returns home safely from school
- Can play children’s games in a park that is safe and clean
- Can walk back home guided by working streetlights
- Have a nourishing supper in the company of both parents
- Will enjoy being read to by either parent
- Will be able to make the best use of all the life opportunities that a democratic South Africa has to offer
- And lives in a country that is free from crime, corruption, rape, greed, and crass opportunism.
This will obviously not happen in my lifetime."
Neeshan Balton is the executive director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.