“It is ironic to celebrate Human Rights Day while ANC Youth League President Julius Malema has been found guilty of hate speech,” said Human Rights Commissioner Pregs Govender at the official launch of Rhodes University’s third annual Human Rights Week on Monday evening.
“It is ironic to celebrate Human Rights Day while ANC Youth League President Julius Malema has been found guilty of hate speech,” said Human Rights Commissioner Pregs Govender at the official launch of Rhodes University’s third annual Human Rights Week on Monday evening.
Malema suggested that the woman who accused president Zuma of rape in 2006 must have had “a nice time”.
Govender, author of the autobiography Love and Courage A Story of Insubordination, delivered a keynote address in which she spoke of the importance of recognising and fighting for human rights.
Govender gave more examples of recent human rights violations in South Africa, such as the group of students at the University of the Free State who videotaped themselves urinating in food and then forcing black female workers to eat it.
Govender also mentioned taxi drivers in Gauteng who beat up a woman for wearing a mini skirt, as well as a woman in KwaZulu- Natal who was beaten up for wearing pants.
“Damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” she said. “Women are glorified as mothers and wives, but are not recognised as full human beings with rights.” Human Rights Week coincides with Human Rights day on Sunday which commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre.
“The best way of honouring the people who gave their lives is in what we do in the present,” said Govender. She then honoured Oliver Tambo for challenging us to “stop hiding behind culture and tradition”.
Govender was the National Educator for the Clothing and Textile Union before founding and leading South Africa’s first Worker’s College in the Western Cape in 1991.
In 1994, Govender was elected as an ANC MP to the National Assembly, and in 2001, was the only ANC MP to vote against the arms deal. She has received several awards including the first Ruth First Fellowship for courageous writing and activism, and the Inspiration Award from the Association of Women’s Rights in Development(AWID).
She now chairs the Independent Panel of Experts and is a member of the Panel of Eminent Persons. She also chaired committee hearings on the gendered impact of HIV/AIDS.
Govender resigned from parliament in 2002 after the task team hearings on child rape. Govender explained that we have to connect the dots between the role of leadership and global politics in order to tackle human rights violations.
“We need to look at both the corrupted and at those who are corrupting and we need to hold them both responsible,” she said. “Leaders across political parties need to speak out,” she said. “Unless you change the institutions, one individual is not going to change anything.
” Govender did however acknowledge South Africans’ awareness of humanrights. “In this country, there are a lot more people being vocal about their rights being undermined than in other countries,” she said.
She challenged Rhodes students to investigate why people have the inability to question leadership and to find what can be done to change this.
Rhodes Vice Chancellor Saleem Badat thanked Govender for her motivational presentation, saying that the challenge for Rhodes is to look inwards and focus on rights within campus. “We like to talk about rights, but it is very difficult to claim and assert rights,” he said.
