Zikhona Sodlaka speaks about the importance of knowing your rights

21 March 2022 - 14:00 By Joy Mphande
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Actress Zikhona Sodlaka on the importance of learning about ones human rights.
Actress Zikhona Sodlaka on the importance of learning about ones human rights.
Image: Instagram/ Zikhona Sodlaka

Zikhona Sodlaka has shed light on the importance of knowing one's rights as Mzansi celebrates Human Rights Day.

Human Rights Day is historically linked with March 21 1960, and the events of Sharpeville. On that day 69 people died and 180 were wounded when police fired on a peaceful crowd that had gathered in protest against the pass laws.

A few years back, the actress admits that she did not commemorate Human Rights Day as she had turned a blind eye on the different human rights listed by the SA Human Rights Commission, but today she tells a different story as she has since learnt more about them.

“A few years back I went to the museum for the very first time in my life. I have a friend who works at the SA Human Rights Commission, she told me that there are over fifty human rights and I got shocked that I can’t even name three at least,” she told TshisaLIVE. 

"I cannot say I know l fifty at the top of my head but I am familiar with them a lot better now than 5 years ago."

Although Zikhona says it is hard for to commemorate the holiday because of her tight schedule, she doesn't want to turn a blind eye.

"With my job we work everyday. Including human rights day. It is very easy to overlook such a day because I am hard at work and not observing it as a public holiday. However I will apply myself moving forward and find ways of keeping as special and important as it it.

"Information is empowering. When you know better you act better. It is easy for someone to bully you or overstep a boundary set by the bill of rights.. and if you do not know how those rights protect you, you cannot protect yourself. It is also important to learn all the right so you too can avoid overstepping a Boundary. These rights are created to have a more civil way of relating with each other, better is a South African than can say proud and loud I know my rights and protect themselves"

The Wife actress said it was imperative to know one's human rights to be able to educate the next generation about the events of the day.

"Every human being, every citizen is as important as the next. Our nation has made sure that we know this and that we take our power back and come from and empowered play. This day also marks the day that citizens were gunned down for a peaceful protest. It says to us we come from a past that never recognized us equal.

"This day is a sore point to me and a million other South Africans. But I applause the strides taken in our time to make sure something of that nature never happens again, in our lifetime. It says in not so many words knowing what we were fighting for and the price that was payed for it, who are we not to be empowered and know our human rights so we may use them, loudly."


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