Human Rights Day: South Africa's quest for true economic freedom

There is a mixed record of South Africa’s human rights interventions in response to gender inequality, access to education, access to justice or to enforce the freedom of association, however economic equality remains elusive.

This is according to Professor Siphamandla Zondi, the director of the Institute for Pan African Thought and Conversation at the University of Johannesburg.

Zondi said the country’s human rights instruments are praised for being designed to be among the best in the world. They follow the very best practices in the world. Yet, what they were meant to end, continues.

He mentioned that without economic equality, historical justice is hollow and this equality has been elusive. 

“Gender-based violence is very high. Poverty and inequality are rife. Many still cannot assert some of their rights,” Zondi said.

On land reform, he said government statistics show that while a lot of land has been transferred to claimants, a lot remains pending. Even where transfer happens, large tracts of land are wasted as there is no work on them.

“The land reform programme that is well designed has not been efficient. There is still a lot of outcry over the pace of land restitution leading to calls for land expropriation without compensation still being debated. 

“However, with a coalition government bringing into the centre political force opposed to just land reform, it is much more difficult to achieve the land reform policy now than before. The landholders have also been emboldened to resist change,” he said.

Zondi added that with regard to reconciliation, a major weakness is that since it takes two to do the reconciliation tango, it is dependent on the white minority including small segments within this minority trying to play along, but it has not happened to the extent expected. 

“So, we have not been seeing as much reciprocal actions from the beneficiaries of colonialism and apartheid as expected. At times, they have been emboldened to even deny historical injustice and pour scorn on efforts to restore justice. Another shortcoming is that without economic equality, historical justice is hollow and this equality has been elusive,” he said. 

Zondi commended the government for its expansion of access to basic amenities for the poor and previously excluded. These include socioeconomic rights, such as access to housing, education, and healthcare.

“There has been huge investment in achieving some parity to services and opportunities. This ought to be celebrated. But there is still a long way to go before we can be satisfied that enough has been done to meet the obligations of the 1996 Constitution. 

“Even where access is assured then you depend on problems of quality and consistency of supply such as electricity and water getting cut frequently,” Zondi said. 

Women, children, and the LGBTIQ+ remain vulnerable as crime, unemployment, poverty, and gender-based violence levels remain high. 

Professor Marianne Strydom, chairperson of the Department of Social Work at Stellenbosch University, said the realisation of children’s rights might be difficult to attain if there are structural challenges such as food insecurity, which is often the outcome of poverty and unemployment.

“The protection of the rights of vulnerable children where there is for instance food insecurity, poverty, and unemployment in a family, falls upon the social workers at designated child protection organisations. 

“This sector is repeatedly seen in research studies as being in a crisis, due to a lack of people power and financial and community resources. The outcome of this ‘crisis’ is that the ability of the child protection sector to protect the constitutional rights of children to social services is restricted,” she said.

She added that children need special protection, as they are the most vulnerable members of society because of their dependency on their parents and family for care and protection. 

“The education of children, parents, and communities about children’s rights is an important step to improve the violation of children’s rights. However, knowledge about any topic does not equal effective implementation. Thus, even if children are aware of their rights, it will not be enough to uphold their rights. 

“The South African government has an obligation to uphold the rights of South Africa’s children. However, it seems as if the constitutional right to food security and social services when a child needs care and protection are in jeopardy,” Strydom said. 

She said the most important children's rights are the right to survival, shelter, and social services or protection.  

“The right to survival is related to the right to basic food or food security as indicated in Section 28 of the Constitution. Food security is an immense challenge as approximately half of the children in South Africa live in households that are below the poverty line. A recent report mentioned that about 23% of children in South Africa are living in severe child food poverty,” Strydom said. 

Economist Professor Bonke Dumisa said South Africa gained political independence but did not have economic power. 

He said it is through the use of decision-making power of the structures that we determine how soon we are going to have economic justice in South Africa. 

“In many cases, we put more black faces than whites. But those black faces make the same wrong decisions as what whites did. 

“We need to change the education system to have blacks participating meaningfully in the economic development in the country, not as fronts, then there will be economic justice,” Dumisa said.

Human Rights Day is commemorated on March 21, annually, to remind South Africans about the sacrifices that accompanied the struggle for the attainment of democracy in South Africa.

gcwalisile.khanyile@inl.co.za