President Kgalema Motlanthe on Tuesday urged South Africans to work together for a better society.

Commemorating Reconciliation Day at Freedom Park, at an event also attended by ex-president Thabo Mbeki, Motlanthe said South Africans needed to look beyond the injustices of the past and work together for a non-racial society.

Fourteen years into democracy, a lot of unity had been achieved, he said but added that more still needed to be done to achieve the promised better life for all.

The theme of Reconciliation Day this year was 'Families united in humanity'.

South Africans were celebrating the common ground and unifying thread which ran through society's core units, Motlanthe said.

"A family is the basic unit of society and to an extent that if it is intact, functional and stable, it will help with the building of stability in society."

Motlanthe said the coming election would further consolidate the country's democracy.

"On this day we should also recommit ourselves to uphold the noble principles enshrined in our constitution, which includes freedom of expression," he said

South Africans' shared history and the common future they sought to build impelled all to collectively affirm the democratic right to expression without any constitutional restriction, he said.

Motlanthe also called on South Africans to uphold constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, so political entities would express themselves politically, "without let or hindrance".

"Let all of us South Africans resolve to work for our common destiny as a nation, so that the values we have sown continue to inspire us to achieve our goals of a united, democratic, non racial, non sexist and prosperous nation," he said.

Sapa