Pretoria - The Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Michael Masutha, will represent President Jacob Zuma and officiate at the national Human Rights Day commemoration, the Presidency announced on Thursday.
This is because President Zuma will officiate and deliver the eulogy at the funeral service of the late Minister of Public Service and Administration, Collins Chabane, who died in a car accident last Sunday in Limpopo.
The Minister of Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, will direct proceedings at the funeral service of Minister Chabane and will also not attend the Human Rights Day commemoration.
The main celebration for the Human Rights Month programme will take place at Uitenhage, in the Eastern Cape, on Saturday.
The choice of location is to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Uitenhage Massacre that took place on 21 March 1985 and at the same, popularise the national significance of the day to all citizens of the country.
21 March is the day set aside to celebrate human rights and to remind all South Africans of their human rights.
The theme for this year’s celebration is “Celebrating the Freedom Charter, Enjoying Equal Human Rights for All”.
As part of the celebrations, a National Social Cohesion Report Back Summit will take place in Port Elizabeth on 30 March.
The gathering is a follow up event to the summit that was held at the Walter Sisulu Memorial Square of Remembrance in Kliptown, Soweto, which also took place at the historic site of the Freedom Charter.
The summit will be attended by delegates from civil society, religious leaders and government representatives.
The purpose of the summit was to review progress and identify stumbling blocks to the nation building and social cohesion programme as outlined by the resolution of the 2012 Summit.
It will also chart the way forward to speed up the nation building project. - SAnews.gov.za
