09 February 2004
Madam Speaker
Hon President
Hon Deputy President
Hon Members
On the 27 of April this year the peoples of Africa and the peoples of the world will be joining us, the people of South Africa in celebrating our decade of freedom.
The question is why would people hundreds of kilometers away from our boarders, thousands of kilometers away from our shores celebrate this important part of our history with us.
They will be celebrating with us, because from the 27 of April 1994, South Africa under the leadership of the ANC has moved away from being a violator of human rights inside and outside of her boarders to be a global player in the restoration of human dignity and creation of caring society.
Instead of being part of civil wars in Mozambique and Angola, South Africa under the leadership of the ANC assisted the people of Mozambique when there were floods. The defence force that could have killed before the 27 April 1994 saved a woman and her baby who were drowning.
South Africa that was known in Lesotho of cross border raids and abductions, after the 27 of 1994 April led a SADC force that restored democracy in that country.
We have not only established a culture of human rights here at home, but we are exporters of this culture, that is why in August 1994 his lordship Justice Richard Goldstone was appointed by United Nations Organization as the chief prosecutor in the international criminal tribunal for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
We have done all these and many more because we believe that our own development, the development of Africa and the development of the rest of the world cannot be separated. We also believe that development outside the culture of human rights can never be sustainable.
Our efforts in Africa and in the rest of the world have not gone UN appreciated that is why the rest of the word will be celebrating with us this important day.
To us South Africans what shall we be celebrating? We shall be celebrating our success and challenges in first 10 years of freedom.
There is no doubt that South Africa is gradually moving away from its painful past. A past full of tears and sorrow, and brick by brick we are building a society where rich man's haven is not a poor man's hell. We are from a society where white man's privileges were black man's hell.
Despite the fact that the system of apartheid used to refer to white south Africans as Europeans, on the 8th may 1996 when we adopted our constitution, architects and leaders of that system joined the leader of the ANC in this house the honourable president and declared themselves Africans.
This was an important victory to the oppressed masses, because our struggle was not only about our own liberation as the oppressed, but also the liberation of the oppressor.
For national reconciliation to succeed, both the oppressed and the oppressor must be truly liberated. We are not yet there, but that is what we are building towards.
Despite many challenges, we are succeeding in building this society, where people are not judged according the colour of their skin but through the content of their own character.
This reminds me of an incident that happened in the sixties where a young man of 15 years old was arrested for participating in a political activity. He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. He had his youth taken away from him.
Whilst in prison he studied law, when he was supposed to be admitted as an attorney, he was told that he is a Tswana therefore he must go and practice in Bophuthatswana.
Today that person is judge of the constitutional court of the republic of South Africa; I am talking about his lordship justice Dikgang Moseneke. He is one amongst many who are a clear illustration on how far we have travelled to be where we are today.
Before 1994, judges were less independent than they are now, because of the supremacy of parliament, which meant that even laws, which violated basic human rights like suppression of communism act, had to be enforced by our courts as long as they were properly passed parliament.
Under the ANC we have a constitutional democracy which means that a law passed by parliament can be struck down by the courts and be declared null and void if that law is violates our constitution.
Under the ANC, judges are appointed in transparent manner through the judicial service commission. They are interviewed publicly, and recommendations are made to the president who then appoint.
Before 1994 the president appointed judges in an untransparent way. It was just an executive decision without any input from people involved in the administration of justice.
We are in a process of making the judiciary more accountable to the people than they are now. A bill is before the portfolio committee of justice and constitutional development on complain mechanism against judges and magistrates.
The department of justice with the input from the judiciary is about to complete a program on the continuous training of the judiciary, so that our judiciary is in line with the development of our society.
Despite infrastructural challenges such as some buildings not being in good conditions and case backlogs, court hours are continuously increasing and conviction rates are improving.
The shift by the legal aid board away from a judicature system to salaried lawyers has ensured that more poor people get legal representation than before and more offices are being opened, which ensures more access of legal representation to poor people.
One of the challenges we are facing is overcrowding in prisons, which is partly caused by magistrates giving high bails to people for minor cases.
Because most of these people cannot afford bail, they are forced to stay in jails for offences which even if convicted they might not serve a prison sentence.
It is important that magistrates should become sensitive when dealing with this issue.
We have established special courts to deal with sexual offences and child abuse cases because it has been very difficult to deal with these cases in normal courts because court officials were not trained to deal with them.
One of the most important structures, which we have created, is the office of the public protector which is empowered by section 182 of the constitution to investigate any conduct in any state department or in the public administration in any sphere of government, that is alleged or suspected to be improper conduct.
Our objective in creating this structure is to ensure that there is good governance, which will improve service delivery.
However the challenge faced by this office is the abuse by some political parties in this house. When they have lost battles here they choose the office of the public protector to continue with those battles.
History has taught us that the problem with good constitutions with bill of rights throughout the world is that poor people are not in the position to exercise those rights because they have no money to pay lawyers.
To deal with that, we established the human rights commission whose duty is to.
The human rights commission can on behalf of poor people take a matter to court so that people concerned can exercise their rights.
The transformation of the judiciary is an ongoing process, and although a lot has been achieved since 1994. The realization of equitable representation of both black people and woman within the judiciary forms part of the longer term objectives.
Over the next 5 years, the ANC aims to strengthen the prosecution system and the scorpions, and improve coordination among all law enforcement agencies.
As some people yearn for the glory of South Africa that is gone, we shall continue to labour for the success of the new South Africa, free and great among the nations of the world.