Author and academic Dr David Dube has urged the current leadership to avoid tampering with the people’s rights and instead ensure that those who live in rural areas are not forgotten.
He was speaking as South Africans celebrate Freedom Month. The country’s first democratic elections were held in on 27 April 1994, which saw Nelson Mandela elected as President.
The 1994 elections were the first time everyone of voting age of over 18 from all race groups, including foreign citizens with permanent residence in South Africa, were allowed to vote. Under the apartheid regime, non-whites had limited voting rights.
Freedom Day is the National Day of South Africa and is a day of remembrance that marks the end of the period of colonialism and apartheid.
Dube says 27-years after democracy, many citizens are still without housing, water and sanitation.
He says this violates their right to dignity.
“The very same rural people are entitled to be serviced accordingly so that they also enjoy their human rights. People in Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, portions of KwaZulu-Natal, look at the vastness, the ruralness and also how people struggle there. They also want to be given those services accordingly. Services like electricity, roads, sanitation, infrastructure of water provision, educational opportunities, social welfare runs and a whole range of commodities.”
