The relevance of human rights to the socio-economic and political development in South Africa

Abstract

The concern with the relevance of human rights to the socio-economic and political development in South Africa is of threefold account, namely human rights, socio-economic and political development, and South Africa. Human rights have been consistently applied as a common standard of achievement in the realisation that development cannot be implemented in pure economic terms only, but implies the 'duties of all people towards all other people. For rights only come into their own through practice, the interaction of socio-economic and political facts with values. The importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of I 0 December 1948 is of primary account in this regard. This implies the right to development of all people as well as the classical meaning of equity. The main social function of human rights is to become essential ingredients in legal, political and social reality in each and every country. The socio-economic implementation of human rights in the entire world includes the facts and peculiarities of South Africa in the context of ethnic pluralism. This covers the unrealistic overtones of apartheid, the unabated pressure of the United Nations and the achievement of the new South Africa. There is a great difference between merely criticising and getting things done. An important issue is the sustainability of the RDP, with its emphasis on Mandela's linkage XI between human rights, the rule of law and economic prosperity. COSATU with its unrealistic trade unionism however, remains the chief stumbling block to the unfettered free market economies and investments which are required for genuine job creation. Short of this the RDP and GEAR, which have got off the ground, are in danger of collapse. It is recommended that the ANC should work towards a genuine multi-party democracy at a realistic level where honest criticism is respected. The universal implications of human rights require that people should not be protected overduly simply because they are black at the expense of others who simply happen to be white. Some people are not more equal than others merely by virtue of being white or black.