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Use rights for cohesion and care: Masutha

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Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha says government is urging everyone to use Human Rights Month as a vehicle to foster social cohesion, nation building, and an end to xenophobia and homophobia among other things.

The minister was speaking at the annual Human Rights Day commemoration, being held this year in Rosedale Field in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape.

In his keynote address, Masutha said people in communities should care for one another.

“We should go back to the tradition of caring for each other’s children and young people.”

Urging people to refrain from looting foreign owned shops, the minister said although people have got the right to protest, they should do so within the ambit of the law.

His comments come after angry residents in Soweto, Kagiso and Langlaagte destroyed shops which were mostly owned by foreign nationals.

“We need to root out from our communities the new habit of looting and destroying shops owned by immigrants,” said the minister.

Masutha also touched on the land issue saying government is trying to restore the human rights of the people of District Six in Cape Town by returning the land to its rightful owners.

The minister paid special tribute to Collins Chabane, the minister of Public Service and Administration, who was killed last Sunday in a car crash in Limpopo. This year’s Human Rights Day commemoration was held on the same day as the funeral for the late minister.

Human Rights Day is a remembrance of the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, in which thousands of men, women and children marched to the Sharpeville police station to protest against the unjust laws enforced by the apartheid government. During the protest 69 people were killed and 180 injured.

The theme for 2015 is “Celebrating the Freedom Charter, enjoying Equal Human Rights for All”.

– By Tshepiso Moche

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