Media Statements

On the historic day of the 8th May 1996, the National Assembly adopted the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. This was signed into law on the 10th December 1996 in Sedibeng, the then Vaal Triangle in recognition of those who were brutally killed by the apartheid police on the 21 March 1960 and the betrayal of the 1902 Peace Treaty of Vereeniging that disenfranchised blacks, relegated them to secondary citizenship and the 1913 Land Act that dispossessed rightful owners of the land in the country of their birth.

As the supreme law, the Constitution was founded on human rights and the fundamental principles of the Freedom Charter. It is a loadstar that guides us in our journey for freedom, justice, and our quest for a united, non-sexist, non-racial democratic South Africa towards the creation of an equal society based on human rights and dignity.

It is through our Constitution that our sovereignty and territorial integrity and rights therein are guaranteed and the occupation of our rightful place in the community of nations for a better Africa and a better world and the creation of global peaceful order based on a culture of human rights.

We commemorate the 31st anniversary of our freedom and democracy and the 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter proud of our journey of ensuring that we fulfil our historic mission and a quest for human dignity and a better life for all. It is this Constitution that abolished the death penalty, guarantees our rights, recognize the injustices of the past, honour those who suffered for justice and freedom, our conviction that South Africa belongs to those who live in it, the wealth of this country must be shared to all and commitment to lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people, to heal the divisions of the past and establish an equal society.

In honouring those before us and in recognition of the injustices of the past we are committed to the reversal of the apartheid vestiges by restoring land to the dispossessed, ensure universal access to health and education, workplace equity, diversity, equality of languages and human dignity and other enshrined in the Constitution. These fundamental rights are non-negotiable. We believe that our revolution cannot can prosecuted through the courts but dialogue, consensus and commitment to ensure redress, common citizenship, non-racialism, non-sexism and an equal society as espoused by the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.

We commemorate this feat amidst systematic attempts and a well-coordinated scheme to subvert transformation. It is for this reason that the national dialogue is important to identify hurdles that account forthe current psyche of the nation and challenges facing the nation, building a government capable of leading development, enhancing state capacity, job creation and ethical and visionary leadership.

This achievement is a product of the unrelenting struggles for which the people paid the ultimate price, a sacrifice aptly surmised by President Nelson Mandela when he said “It is not the kings or generals that make history but the masses of the people.”

The ANC pays tribute and salutes those who played a sterling role for this achievement as continue to honour those who suffered the injustices of the past.by advancing rights contained in the Constitution. The ANC is proud of the strides made to change the lives of the people as directed by the Constitution in furtherance of the Freedom Charter and the strategic objectives around which the ANC pivots.

This milestone calls for society to join in the project of nation building and unity to defend democracy and advance freedom.

The People Shall Govern

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