President Ramaphosa. (Photo: David Harrison)
The success of South Africa’s constitutional democracy depends on pressing issues such as poverty, unemployment, inequality, corruption and violence, President Cyril Ramaphosa has said.
Ramaphosa told delegates at the Constitutional conference in Midrand on Wednesday that the event was an opportunity to reflect on how to strengthen democracy and address the country’s many challenges in terms of the rule of law, accountability and social and economic justice.
He said the purpose of the Constitution, the supreme law of the land which was launched on February 4, 1997, was to heal the divisions of the apartheid era in the country and create a society based on the values of democracy, social justice and human rights.
“The contours of our racist and sexist era are still present in private and public institutions, in business, in access to skills, wealth and opportunity, and in the spatial configuration of cities, towns and rural areas,” Ramaphosa said, adding that the country’s constitutional project would fail if all level of government does not address inequality and poverty.
“Therefore, as this conference reflects the way to come, it should reflect issues such as progress on land restitution and reform, reform and governance, and economic transformation. It should also reflect corruption, crime and national security, and how these issues affect training and protection of human rights,” he said.
“There is no viable state or effective constitutional democracy without the support and involvement of citizens in various public formations.”
In addition to paying taxes, complying with laws and contributing to social and economic development, citizens have an important role in creating governance structures and responsibilities assigned to serve the country, the president said.
“Parliament, as the representative of the people, has a clear mandate to hold the president, vice president and ministers to account, individually and collectively, for the exercise of their powers and the performance of their functions,” he said.
He called for tolerance for different views and called on South Africans to work together to eradicate homelessness, illiteracy, hunger and disease.