CHRISTO VAN DER RHEEDE'S HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT CARD LAUNCH CLOSING ADDRESS

Thank you, Sonia. Ladies and gentlemen, South Africa’s fiscally constrained position continued to severely impact the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms for its citizens.

You have no doubt, from what was said by the Constitutional Rights Programme team, reached the same conclusion as the FW de Klerk Foundation, namely that inclusive economic growth is an absolute necessity for South Africa’s Constitution to become a reality for all.

South Africa needs to increase the number of taxpayers it has – in 2024 it only had approximately 7,4 million taxpayers for a population of over 60 million people. That is 60 million people with real needs. Our country has, once again, “arrived at a stage in its history where it is no longer an option for South Africans to agree to disagree”. Without the job creation that results from economic growth, the number of taxpayers will remain low and the government’s resulting revenue too small to adequately address its 60 million people’s needs. Without sufficient money in state covers to adequately address the need of its 60 million people, budget cuts to education and other sectors will continue to impact these rights negatively. Without the job creation that results from economic growth, income inequality, food insecurity, etc. will only remain and continue to negatively affect the South Africans’ dignity, equality and other rights and freedoms.

As a former educator and school principal myself, I find it important to point out that despite the amount the South African taxpayer spends on education – and we should see it as money that the South African taxpayer spends, not the State, the State only stewards the money – the poor outcomes have remained. As pointed out by the Constitutional Rights Programme team, the biggest expenditure in South Africa’s national budget is on education, but 81% of grade 4 learners could not read with understanding. UNICEF also observed recurring trends of deprivation regarding education.

When it comes to further education, it is important to note that the Constitution obliges the State to make the right to further education progressively available and accessible to everyone through reasonable measures. The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (commonly known as “NSFAS”) is the way that the State has chosen to do this. The resignation of the NSFA board’s chairperson and the decision by the Higher Education and Training Minister, in April 2024, to dissolve the board and place NSFAS under administration reflects systemic failures. These failures are detrimental to both students and the future of South Africa’s economy. As pointed out by Daniela, South Africa has high youth unemployment. South Africa, to its own detriment, is failing to make good use of its demographic advantage and even worse fails its youth in providing them with quality education, skills training and jobs. As Stats SA has said: the high youth unemployment appears to be driven by limited educational attainment and social and economic disadvantages.

Clearly, throwing money at education has not resulted in our children being well-educated and equipped to be able to successfully enter the workforce and take their place as future taxpayers who can help advance the human rights and freedoms in the Constitution and build a future of freedom and justice for their next generation.

The FW de Klerk Foundation believes that a multi-pronged approach must be adopted instead of merely increasing the amount of money taxpayers spend on education. One such prong should be to properly skill and support school principals, who are charged with running schools and supervising teachers. Properly run schools, where teachers are required to show up to class on time and teach well, or face the consequences, will go a long way to addressing the problems the education sector faces. We need principals who are skilled and who have a community of other principals to do this.

I also want to reiterate that social development was the second biggest expenditure in South Africa’s budget: this makes sense as approximately 45% of South Africans receive government grants in some form or another. This situation is unsustainable. Particularly given that government debt needs to be paid off to decrease debt service costs (that currently use more than 20% of government’s revenue).

Addressing these challenges requires a comprehensive strategy to ensure sustainable development and the effective realisation of constitutional rights.

Esteemed guests, dignitaries, board members, members of the media and those joining us online, the time has come to end the Foundation’s presentation of its Rights Report Card 2024. We hope that it has achieved its purpose, namely, to enable you to pause and reflect on the bigger picture of how we as a nation are doing in our endeavour to advance the human rights and freedoms in the Constitution. To question how we are doing as a nation in building a future of freedom and justice. To discuss these vital issues with others in your daily dialogue and to think about them as you work to report the news.

We will now open the question-and-answer session and encourage you to participate. The session will conclude at 14:00, after which drinks and refreshments will be served. Again, we encourage you to undertake a self-tour of the Centre for the Constitutional Transformation of South Africa once the serving of drinks and refreshments has commenced.

I thank you.