Former president Thabo Mbeki has warned that global conflicts, including the escalating Middle East war, show that the world is failing to protect children.
Speaking at the 30th anniversary gala dinner of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund in Johannesburg on Thursday, Mbeki said the international community had collectively failed its youngest citizens.
“The failure to realise children’s rights is not a crisis limited to this country; from Gaza to the displacement camps in South Sudan, and to the 150 Iranian school girls who died on the very first day of the current war between the US and Israel on one hand, and Iran on the other, the world is engaged in a systematic failure to protect its youngest citizens,” he said.
Mbeki said the fund’s core philosophy, placing caregivers and children at the centre of political and institutional life, was a vision that the world urgently needed.
Caregiving is a constitutional obligation
Mbeki said the protection of children in South Africa was not simply an act of charity but a constitutional duty.
“What we call caregiving is not, in a constitutional democracy, an act of charity. It is an act of justice,” he said.
“The failure to provide it is not merely a developmental shortfall. It is, in the precise legal sense, a breach of our supreme law.”
Referring Section 28 of South Africa’s Bill of Rights, Mbeki said the Constitution places the welfare of children above all other interests.
“Paramount means that the supreme law of this Republic places the child’s welfare above all other interests in every matter affecting her life,” he said.
“Our Constitution fundamentally aspires to be a caregiving document.”
He said the Constitution imposed a positive obligation on the state, institutions and society to ensure that every child was protected.
“It does not just prohibit cruelty to children; it also imposes a positive obligation on the state, on institutions, and on all of us to ensure that every child is held, nourished, and protected,” Mbeki added.
ALSO READ: Iran says it will fight the war alone
Poverty still affecting millions of children
Reflecting on the country’s progress since the advent of democracy, Mbeki said South Africa must confront the reality that millions of children still live in poverty.
“In South Africa, children remain one of the most vulnerable groups in the country,” he said, noting that they made up a large share of the poor population.
Mbeki said the persistence of child poverty raised difficult questions about whether the country had truly honoured its commitment to young people.
“It would be difficult to claim that the soul of the nation is informed by the philosophy of ubuntu when it still has so many millions of children living in poverty,” he said.
National dialogue must include children’s future
Mbeki also pointed to the planned national dialogue to address South Africa’s social and economic challenges, stating that the future of children should be a key part of the discussions.
He said that, despite delays and “unnecessary hiccups”, work was continuing to ensure the dialogue took place.
“I have no doubt that one of the major items on the agenda of the National Dialogue will be the matter which this Fund is about, the future of the children of South Africa,” he said.
Mbeki added that the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund would play a central role in shaping those discussions when the process begins.
“Our shared task is to add ever more strength to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund as well as undertake the necessary mobilisation, including through the National Dialogue, to ensure that all of society joins hands with the Children’s Fund to realise the dream and vision which Madiba kept alive until his dying day,” he said.
NOW READ: Middle East War latest: What you need to know
About the Author
