President Jacob Zuma has urged provinces to intensify efforts to ensure there were no deaths during the upcoming winter initiation season.
He made the plea in his Freedom Day speech at Giyani in Limpopo yesterday.
Zuma said the department of traditional affairs had mobilised all stakeholders including police‚ the national prosecuting authority‚ department of health‚ traditional leaders and communities to achieve the government’s policy of zero tolerance for initiation deaths.
Scores of initiates have died over the years at initiation camps across the country, particularly in the Eastern Cape.
Zuma also called on the nation to safeguard the country against anarchists trying to undermine freedom and democracy through violence.
He said freedom had not come free. It had been hard-fought for and many lives had been lost in attaining it. “We therefore have the collective responsibility to defend it as South Africans with the same vigour as when we fought for it. We must unite and not allow anything to threaten the freedom and democracy we fought so hard for. This means we must stop actions that undermine our hard-won freedom, such as engaging in violence.”
He said destructive elements should be reported to the police and that South Africans should work together to build better communities “where all guard jealously all facilities that are built to make our lives better”.
“We know that some within our communities believe such violence will make them popular and try to use anarchy to build their political careers.
“Let us not allow this to happen in our name. We worked hard to build this country as millions of South Africans. It must not be destroyed by anarchists who have no interest in our wellbeing.”
Zuma added that the government would continue to implement black economic empowerment as well as affirmative action programmes.
He said that for freedom to be complete‚ the country’s economy could not be skewed along racial lines. “We must give practical meaning to the demand of the Freedom Charter that ‘all shall share in the country’s wealth’‚” he stated.
He also promised that the government would not rest until all households in the country had basic services. “We will continue to work with all communities towards this end‚ together building better communities and improving the functioning of municipalities so that they can better provide these services.”
Notwithstanding the backlog in services‚ much had been achieved socially‚ economically and politically in the past 22 years and it was a fact that the country was a much better place to live in now than it was before 1994‚ he stated.
The leader of the opposition, Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane, in his Freedom Day speech, said that while South Africa may have won political freedom in 1994‚ the real work was to turn it into economic opportunity for all.
Addressing residents of the informal settlement of Zandspruit on the West Rand, which has been wracked by protests over lack of service delivery‚ Maimane said the people of Zandspruit‚ like so many other forgotten communities across South Africa‚ were not yet free.
Corruption was robbing people of their true freedom by taking money that could be spent on opportunities for the poor and redirecting it to the pockets of the powerful and well-connected.
Maimane added that corruption was getting worse. “We thought Nkandla was bad. At Nkandla‚ the President spent R246-million of public money.
“You would have thought that after the Constitutional Court told the President that he had violated his oath of office‚ just a few weeks ago‚ the President would be embarrassed.
“But now‚ President Zuma has ordered himself a new jet for R4-billion‚” he said. — Tiso Black Star Group Digital
Zuma focuses on initiates and violence
He made the plea in his Freedom Day speech at Giyani in Limpopo yesterday.
Zuma said the department of traditional affairs had mobilised all stakeholders including police‚ the national prosecuting authority‚ department of health‚ traditional leaders and communities to achieve the government’s policy of zero tolerance for initiation deaths.
Scores of initiates have died over the years at initiation camps across the country, particularly in the Eastern Cape.
Zuma also called on the nation to safeguard the country against anarchists trying to undermine freedom and democracy through violence.
He said freedom had not come free. It had been hard-fought for and many lives had been lost in attaining it. “We therefore have the collective responsibility to defend it as South Africans with the same vigour as when we fought for it. We must unite and not allow anything to threaten the freedom and democracy we fought so hard for. This means we must stop actions that undermine our hard-won freedom, such as engaging in violence.”
He said destructive elements should be reported to the police and that South Africans should work together to build better communities “where all guard jealously all facilities that are built to make our lives better”.
“We know that some within our communities believe such violence will make them popular and try to use anarchy to build their political careers.
“Let us not allow this to happen in our name. We worked hard to build this country as millions of South Africans. It must not be destroyed by anarchists who have no interest in our wellbeing.”
Zuma added that the government would continue to implement black economic empowerment as well as affirmative action programmes.
He said that for freedom to be complete‚ the country’s economy could not be skewed along racial lines. “We must give practical meaning to the demand of the Freedom Charter that ‘all shall share in the country’s wealth’‚” he stated.
He also promised that the government would not rest until all households in the country had basic services. “We will continue to work with all communities towards this end‚ together building better communities and improving the functioning of municipalities so that they can better provide these services.”
Notwithstanding the backlog in services‚ much had been achieved socially‚ economically and politically in the past 22 years and it was a fact that the country was a much better place to live in now than it was before 1994‚ he stated.
The leader of the opposition, Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane, in his Freedom Day speech, said that while South Africa may have won political freedom in 1994‚ the real work was to turn it into economic opportunity for all.
Addressing residents of the informal settlement of Zandspruit on the West Rand, which has been wracked by protests over lack of service delivery‚ Maimane said the people of Zandspruit‚ like so many other forgotten communities across South Africa‚ were not yet free.
Corruption was robbing people of their true freedom by taking money that could be spent on opportunities for the poor and redirecting it to the pockets of the powerful and well-connected.
Maimane added that corruption was getting worse. “We thought Nkandla was bad. At Nkandla‚ the President spent R246-million of public money.
“You would have thought that after the Constitutional Court told the President that he had violated his oath of office‚ just a few weeks ago‚ the President would be embarrassed.
“But now‚ President Zuma has ordered himself a new jet for R4-billion‚” he said. — Tiso Black Star Group Digital
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