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South Africans are the key to ensuring positive and meaningful change in their country
One of South Africa’s most well-known Editors in Chief, Ms Ferial Haffajee, believes that while life in South Africa is tough, it is only the citizens of this country that can change the direction of where South Africa is going.
This was just one of the many powerful thoughts she left with guests when she delivered the 4th Annual Safety, Peace and Human Rights Lecture in honour of the late Abdullah (Dullah) Omar at the Soweto Hotel on 17 November 2009.
Ms Haffajee began her speech by stating that she wanted to speak at the event because she admired the qualities which the liberation fighter embodied. "I try not to be a talking head editor but accepted this invitation to deliver the annual lecture in memory of Dullah Omar because he embodied selflessness and humility, and because he represented a Titanic generation of leaders."
The annual lecture, initiated in 2006 by Unisa’s Institute for Social and Health Sciences, is aimed at mobilising the legacy of Dullah Omar towards supporting a culture of human rights and democracy. It was attended by at least 100 local residents, marking the Institute’s aim of encouraging community-centred research and engagement.
In her address, Ms Haffajee, who is currently the Editor of City Press, noted that South Africa is among the most unequal societies in the world. Despite South Africa’s democratic and development ideals, the gap between the rich and poor has widened.
She said in a country like ours, those of us with some means have no option but to build bridges across the worlds of plenty and of nothing. These were her ideas:
- Giving as you do and community-based skills transfer is one way. Teaching the simple skills of safety is another.
- Encouraging a culture of living simply and of practising Ubuntu: I am because you are. If you do not have, then neither do I.
- Education is vital. A return to basics now on the agenda is welcome as is a plan to rebuild artisanal and practical skills training.
- A different kind of economy is essential without getting stuck between the labels of left, centre and right. Simply, the economy must become opportunity creating. It must offer on-ramps into the national economy for the excluded, either as workers or entrepreneurs. The lock-out factor is huge with expanded unemployment rate of over 40%.
- Different role models are needed and systems of caring that go beyond the ad-hoc.
She concluded her lecture by contemplating what should South Africans do. Opt out? Live in the bubble? Or break it? Pay a little more tax? Put a kid through school? Hold a hand? Complain a little louder?
"Your awards this evening can teach us a thing or two about what our role might be in making our country prosperous and normal. Ours is a tough, but beloved country. It sits at the bottom of an exciting continent. Not easy, but exciting. I firmly believe that ours is a generation that will determine whether we become an opt-out, divided post-colonial state, or whether this is the generation that will go down as the one that tried and succeeded at doing it differently. Or tried at least!”
Echoing Ms Haffajee’s sentiments, Prof Narend Baijnath, Unisa's Vice-Principal: Strategy, Planning and Partnerships, called for citizens to exercise compassionate citizenship, because "then only would we have honoured Dullah Omar’s legacy."
Prof Rosemary Moeketsi, Executive Dean of the College of Human Sciences, said in recognising Dullah Omar’s commitment to enabling civil society, Unisa honoured men and women from the communities of Slovo Park, Eldorado Park and Vlakfontein who serve as volunteers to the Institute’s safety and peace promotion activities.
Two of the many volunteers who were acknowledged at the annual lecture were Moses Hlomo from Vlakfontein and Jenny Albertyn of Eldorado Park. Both received special mention and a plaque in recognition of their volunteer contributions to safety, peace and development in their respective communities. | 
