Respect each other - Motlanthe

2009-01-01 09:16

Johannesburg - President Kgalema Motlanthe has appealed to South Africans to treat each other with respect.

The President was delivering his New Year's message late on Wednesday.

"I would like to appeal to all South Africans to treat each other with respect ... this includes tolerance towards foreign nationals who, for one reason or the other, have made South Africa their home," he said.

Motlanthe emphasised the need for a united, democratic, non-sexist, non-racial and prosperous nation that derived strength from the diversity of its people.

Turning to the issue of crime, Motlanthe said that government had intensified its efforts to eradicate the scourge of crime in SA.

"It is also important that we guard against and report crime ... we remain committed to rooting out crime, especially high-priority categories ... these include violent crimes against women and children, house robberies, organized crime and corruption as well as illegal firearms, which continue to terrorize our people.

2010

Motlanthe said that SA's infrastructure and systems for hosting the Fifa World Cup were nearing satisfactory completion.

In addition, SA would be hosting the Fifa Confederation Cup in June 2009. He said this would be a very important barometer of not only how the national team would perform during the 2010 Fifa World Cup competition, but also of how hospitable SA was as a nation.

"I am confident that in the event, we will succeed!", he said.

Motlanthe congratulated the matriculants who sat for and passed their matric in the new education system, the National Curriculum Statement.

"The challenges that you and your teachers went through will be instructive for the future, as we seek best ways to make our education system fully functional and responsive to the national and global challenges," he said.

Elections

Turning to 2009's elections, Motlanthe said that South Africans should relish the moment of deepening their democracy by exercising their choice freely in the poll.

"Let us respect the right of all to campaign in all the regions of South Africa," he said.

Addressing international affairs, Motlanthe said SA had joined the United Nations Secretary General in calling for the immediate cessation of the attacks and retaliations between Israel and Hamas.

"The sheer savagery of the attacks launched by Israel against the residents of Gaza serves to conceal the fact that underlying this conflict is the reasonable demand for both peoples (Palestinians and Israelis) to live together in peace and prosperity within their internationally recognized homelands," Motlanthe said.

"The current Israeli aggression proves the folly of the notion of 'waging the war to end all wars' ... War begets war ... The UN Security Council must act now to save lives and to create peace."

Motlanthe said that peace meant more than absence of war.

"Peace means the right of self determination, it means eradication of hunger and poverty, it means free trade and it means the right to life."

- SAPA