President Cyril Ramaphosa has urged public servants to not violate human rights while serving the people of South Africa, as the country celebrated Human Rights Day on Tuesday.

During an event under the theme, "Consolidating and Sustaining Human Rights Culture into the Future" held in De Aar, Northern Cape, the president slammed the employees of municipalities for being corrupt, before assuring the public the issue will be resolved.

"We know that people who work in municipalities are lazy and are stealing the money set aside for projects," Ramaphosa said, SA News reported. "We are aware of it and we say as a government we will fix the issue. Those who steal the money, we will make sure that they get arrested."

The president urged the officials, who were not ready to work and serve the South African people, to leave their positions in the government.

He added, "All our people must be well served."

The 70-year-old president added he wanted every public servant to know that whenever they don't do their work, they are violating the human rights of the people.

"The failure to provide adequate services consistently is a human rights issue," he continued. "That is why we are working to improve the functioning of local government, which carries the greatest responsibility for the provision of these services."

He added, "Through changes to legislation and support program, we are working to improve the capacity of public representatives and officials and direct more resources toward maintaining and upgrading local infrastructure."

President Ramaphosa re-introduced "Green Drop" and "Blue Drop" reports, which help to understand the water provision in municipalities across South Africa. During the speech, the president explained that based on these reports, they were working toward fixing water issues throughout the country.

He added the National Prosecuting Authority will be strengthened, while the presence and visibility of the police would be increased, apart from improvement of the operation of the courts.

"We cannot claim to be a country that respects human rights if we do not do everything in our power and within our resources to ensure that all South Africans have access to land, housing, food, water, health care and education," the President said.

"On this Human Rights Day, let us affirm our determination to realize the rights of all the people who live in this country," he concluded. "In doing so, we will give effect to the promise of our democratic Constitution, and we will be paying the greatest tribute to the visionary leaders who wrote the first South African bill of rights one hundred years ago."

Human Rights Day is celebrated on March 21 because of Sharpeville Massacre, which took place in 1960 on the same day, where apartheid police killed 69 and injured 180 protestors.

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Reuters