President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday hit back at the opposition benches in Parliament for criticising him about always blaming the legacy of apartheid for the country’s social-ills. Ramaphosa said this in his reply to the two-day debate on the State of the Nation Address (SONA) he delivered last week.
Most political parties have watered down Ramaphosa’s constant refer on apartheid for the government’s failure in delivering on its mandate for the people. Ramaphosa told the legislature that there is no way of not looking at the past when reflecting on the present day.
“We cannot forget the past. We have passed through a past that we would have wanted gone having gone through colonialism and apartheid over 342 years it has left deep scars in many of our people and those scars are not going to be washed away or wished away.
The past summons us to do whatever is necessary to strengthen our democracy, to make effective our constitution and the institutions it establishes. And in so doing we are expected to realize in a short space of time for all South Africans the promise of a better life that is the promise of democracy.
Ramaphosa also told Parliament that the lives of many millions of South Africans have been changed for the better under democracy. The President says: although his speech has been criticized so much, not even a single party which has refuted his claim that the majority of the people are living a better life than before 1994.
Not a single speaker, among all the contributions made in the debate, was able to contest a fundamental reality: that the lives of millions of South Africans have been transformed in the 30 years of freedom. This the reality, as I often said whether we like it or whether we don’t like it, it is the reality.”
