South African President Thabo Mbeki has called on all people of the country to commit themselves to work together to help bring prosperity to the country, whose economy grows steadily but high unemployment and rising inequality remain problems.

Mbeki told thousands of people attending national Freedom Day celebrations in Kimberley, Northern Cape Province, on Thursday there were a number of key local government priorities that had to be urgently addressed.

One of these was the capacity of local government structures for better delivery of public services.

"We have to attend seriously and systematically to this matter because it cannot be that after 12 years of democracy we still have municipalities that cannot deliver basic services," said Mbeki.

He said service delivery was central to the country's freedom because citizens could not enjoy this while others had no clean water and no sanitation.

In his speech, Mbeki honored past heroes and heroines who brought freedom to South Africa.

"The celebration of Freedom Day is no ordinary celebration. It is a day when the country's citizens need to pause and reflect on the past and remember those whose sacrifices made it possible for all South Africans to enjoy the benefits of democracy," he said.

Freedom Day marks South Africa's first post-apartheid democratic elections held on April 27, 1994.

Twelve years after the African National Congress (ANC) party won the landmark elections, the ANC and the government now must tackle challenges such as high unemployment rate and increasing inequality, described by some scholars as still depriving economic freedom from the majority black population.

The unemployment rate, even on the narrowest official definition, stood at about 27 percent in 2005, despite the 5 percent GDP (gross domestic product) growth.

Source: Xinhua