The death penalty was abolished in 1996 as a result of the new democratic government’s embracing of human rights and protection of the sanctity of life. The Constitution also guarantees a ‘festival of ideas’ through guaranteeing multiparty democracy in South Africa, with elections every five years manned by an independent institution like the Independent Electoral Commission.

In terms of local development, there is lot of investment in the townships, which is also part of modernisation. Besides creating local sustainable jobs, the creation of shopping malls in townships is good investment where the poor live.

The creation of employee share ownership schemes, which have empowered workers, could only be viable under a Constitutional democracy. For instance, Kumba workers earned almost R500 000 in windfalls from these employee share ownership schemes.

In the area of housing, new neighbourhoods have been created with running water and electricity, consistent with the Freedom Charter. For example, 1.6-million new houses have been built for poor black people and close to 75% of houses have electricity .

More black children are also in schools and many have access to tertiary and vocational education. There are learnerships to give workers certified exposure at the workplace, which is an important element of the last 20 years.

There have been improvements, too, in how employers commit to health and safety. The African National Congress-led government has been helpful in attending to occupational and contagious diseases, such as tuberculosis, contracted by mineworkers particularly in the gold sector.

The Labour Relations Act has prevented the past practice whereby employers dismissed workers willy-nilly. There is more regulatory responsibility to be complied with before workers are retrenched. The right to strike has been Constitutionally protected, which makes life easy for workers in promoting their rights and interests in the workplace. There has been improvements such as gender equity in the workplace, which has seen women doing historically male-orientated jobs.

But challenges persist. A lot of our people, particularly the poor, are part of the 30% unemployment rate and intensifying infrastructure development will alleviate the problem. But more investment by the private sector must be mobilised for sustainable jobs. Inequality still persists, which pushes government into an imperfect state of welfarism. Crime is a problem and more effective policing must be entrenched.