President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday South Africans should challenge what he termed “the completely false narrative” that South Africa is a place in which people of a certain race or culture are being targeted for persecution.

Last week South Africa observed Human Rights Day, which honours the 69 unarmed protestors who were killed by the apartheid police in Sharpeville on March 21, 1960.

Ramaphosa wrote in his weekly letter to the nation that South Africans should reject the politics of divisiveness that is emerging in many parts of the world.

Last month, US President Donald Trump accused South Africa of "confiscating land" and "treating some classes of people very badly".

This after Ramaphosa signed into law the controversial Expropriation Bill, which was met with criticism from some opposition parties and civil society, which led to Trump terminating all United States Agency for International Development aid to South Africa.

Ramaphosa said citizens should not allow events in other countries to divide citizens or turn them against each other, explaining that since the end of apartheid South Africa had been recognised globally for upholding human rights.

“The free flow of ideas and opinions are vital to democracy and to having a vibrant society. South Africans should be proud of the fact that the majority of South Africans continue to believe in democracy, human rights and the rule of law as universal values,” he said.

Ramaphosa said even those with the most offensive views should know that in democratic South Africa, unlike many other parts of the world, the country’s Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression, if it does not include incitement to violence or advocacy of racial and other hatred.

“Reflecting on the perilous state of human rights in many parts of the world today, including the resurgence of racism, South Africa’s path of reconciliation and nation-building becomes more important,” he stated.

He noted that anyone could approach the courts and institutions supporting democracy if their rights were infringed or violated and said South Africans were confident they had a voice and a say in how their country was run, demonstrated by the fact that South Africa had held successive free and fair elections since 1994.

He said today, all citizens, African, white, Indian and coloured, male and female, enjoye equal rights and freedoms that the State was obliged to uphold, protect and advance.

“In South Africa today, there are constitutional protections guaranteed to all racial, cultural and linguistic groups, including their right to enjoy their culture and to use their language,” he explained.

Ramaphosa pointed out that since South Africa’s attainment of freedom, South Africans had been steadfast in its solidarity with peoples everywhere who were facing persecution, discrimination and the violation of their rights.

“Human rights are universal and indivisible. As South Africa we stand in solidarity with all those whose right to lead lives of dignity are being undermined by conflict and war,” he said.

He called for the UN human rights system to be strengthened so that the enjoyment of human rights was no longer the preserve of some.

“As a country we will continue to repeat our call for a renewed global human rights movement so that the rights and dignity of all people should be upheld,” he said.