SA needs civic education: Dr Mamphela Ramphele

Monday 6 August 2012 10:34

SABC

Businesswoman and social commentator, Dr Mamphela Ramphele says this country needs civic education to enable South Africans to assume their responsibility and assert their right. 

Ramphele says once the new government was voted into power in 1994, many people changed gears from being active citizens to becoming subjects of the post-apartheid government.

She says: “I think this happened because we all did not understand what it means to be a citizen of a constitutional democracy. We didn’t understand that we needed very active citizen education for everybody including the leaders about how do we conduct ourselves because South Africa has never had a democracy, so even white people who used to vote did exactly what we did post 94.”

Mamphele says: “You vote in leaders, you don’t make them accountable and then you get back to vote for them again at the next election.”

Ramphele outlined some of the interventions society must undertake. She says: “We have again as citizens to demand that our police service must act in accordance with our constitution to protect the right of people like Tatane who died this brutal death which really leaves one feeling extremely sad. I believe that we need to mobilise to get police services to realign.

Andries Tatane was beaten and shot dead , allegedly by police during a service delivery protest in Ficksburg,  Free State in April last year.