Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday urged all sectors of society to behave with moral responsibility in order to further the legacy of the late former president Nelson Mandela.

"If we are to build on Madiba's legacy, we need both to continue the work that he began and hold true to the moral posture that he adopted," Ramaphosa said in a speech prepared for delivery at a memorial lecture in honour of Mandela.

Ramaphosa gave the keynote address at the Nelson Mandela Foundation event which marked the closing of a tribute period a year after Mandela's burial.

"This is not just an issue for the state. It is an issue for business. It is an issue for all social formations and sectors."

For Mandela, morality was practical, not theoretical, he said.

Politics should be bound by moral principle to guide those who controlled state and economic power in order to address disparities of wealth and opportunity, he said.

Ramaphosa said the wasting, misuse and theft of public resources was unacceptable.

"All our resources, all our energies, must be devoted to serving the people -- the poor and the powerless in particular."

All sectors of society had a responsibility to confront poverty, unemployment and inequality, he said.