Parliament
Deputy President David Mabuza said the country has come to the end of another challenging year due to the prolonged fight against the coronavirus.
Delivering the government’s Christmas message, he said the fight against Covid19 has also compounded slow economic growth and deepened economic hardships for businesses and households.
“The prevailing environment dictated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the global response to it is bringing to the fore, both challenges and opportunities that collectively have changed how we do things, how we structure our lives, how we work, how we worship, as well as how we interact and conduct business,” he said.
Mabuza said these changes demand from everyone “more ingenuity and adaptiveness as we live alongside the virus.”
He said through the recent elections, the country confirmed that even under extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, it can act with courage in making the people’s voices heard.
“We communicated to the world that, to us, no adversity is greater than our treasured right to exercise the constitutionally entrenched right to vote for the government of our choice.”
“In the face of a devastating pandemic, we made a bold statement that we remain committed to building our country as a beacon of democracy and freedom,” Deputy President Mabuza said.
He said for those in government, the elections and their outcome offer a new opportunity to do things differently, to set priorities right, and to deliver, with speed, better services to the people.
During our last Christmas message, the mood in the country was subdued, and the situation we were finding ourselves in, possibly hopeless.
Since then our knowledge of this COVID-19 pandemic has improved.
"We are in a far better situation than we were last season, as a result of the development of vaccines to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities."
Mabuza also addressed issues facing society, saying the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide, coupled with abuse of children especially girl-children, the rising number of new HIV infections among adolescent girls, persist in our communities.
"During this Christmas period, let us be reminded that each one of us is responsible for making our country a better and safer place to live in,” he said.
Read the full statement here:
