We salute all South
Africans on a decade of freedom
This week our country and the peoples of the world will come together
to celebrate our First Decade of Democracy. As an essential part of that
democracy, we will also see the election and inauguration of the President
of the Republic, the election of our provincial premiers, the election
of the presiding officers of our national and provincial legislatures,
and the formation of our national and provincial governments.
A large number of foreign dignitaries will be at the Union Buildings
in Pretoria as we inaugurate the President and celebrate the 10th anniversary
of freedom. We would like to take this opportunity warmly to welcome
our distinguished guests and thank them for taking the time to honour
us with their presence.
We are especially happy that they will be with us,
because they come as representatives of the millions of people throughout
the world who
played such an important role in the struggle to defeat the system of
apartheid. The victory we will celebrate on April 27 belongs as much
to our people as it does to the peoples of the world, whose leaders will
be with us in Tshwane.
When we congregate at the Union Buildings on Freedom Day, in other parts
of our country, and at many venues throughout the world, we will not
only celebrate the democratic victory of 1994.
We will also celebrate the progress that liberated South Africa has
made in the struggle to eradicate the centuries-old legacy of colonialism
and apartheid. We will together rejoice that, despite our past, our country
has completed its First Decade of Liberation without having experienced
any violent racial conflict. We will rejoice at the progress that has
been made to build a non-racial society.
Our colonial and apartheid past made it inevitable that we could not
speak of the genuine liberation of our people without talking about gender
equality and the emancipation of women. Accordingly, when we celebrate
the First Decade of Democracy, we will also rejoice at the progress that
has been made towards the achievement of the goal of a non-sexist society.
The colonial and apartheid past to which we have referred deliberately
sought the impoverishment of the black majority. The achievement of the
objective of enriching, and securing a better life exclusively for the
minority white population, necessarily required that the black majority
should be denied all possibility to enjoy a decent standard of living.
Inevitably therefore, democratic South Africa could not but inherit
a situation of endemic poverty for the millions of our people whom colonial
and apartheid racism had defined as sub-human.
When we convene to celebrate our 10th anniversary, we will also rejoice
at the progress we have made to reduce poverty and give material hope
to our people that they have finally and irrevocably broken away from
the long period of permanent despair. We will rejoice that the process
of the eradication of poverty in our country has begun, resulting in
the improvement of the quality of life of millions of our people.
Quite correctly, for 30 years the international community took action
to isolate apartheid South Africa from the rest of the world. Acting
as the enemy of all humanity, the apartheid regime engaged in a campaign
of aggression, destabilisation and confrontation with all other countries
except those that chose to be its ignoble allies. Our country thus became
the pariah of the world, an agent for the propagation of racism, disrespect
for human rights, conflict among the nations, instability and war.
When we come together to celebrate our First Decade of Democracy, we
will also rejoice at the progress that has been made to reintegrate South
Africa within the world community of nations. We will celebrate the contribution
that democratic South Africa has made to help build a better world of
democracy, peace and a shared prosperity in the rest of Africa and the
world. We will rejoice that the erstwhile pariah has become a valued
member among the forces that fight for a better life for the billions
who inhabit our common globe.
Once again, we extend our deep-felt thanks to the governments and peoples
of the world who will be represented at the Union Buildings on Freedom
Day for the helping hand of solidarity they have extended to us over
the last 10 years, which has helped us to make all these important advances.
The celebrations on April 27 will provide us with an opportunity to
reiterate our pledge to all humanity that, conscious of what the peoples
of the world hoped for when they joined together in the global struggle
against apartheid, we will never abandon the path of democracy, peace,
non-racism, non-sexism, shared prosperity, international solidarity and
mutually beneficial cooperation among the nations.
Among the thousands who will celebrate our Decade of Democracy at the
Union Buildings will be our Provincial Premiers who will be elected by
the provincial legislatures on the 23rd and 26th of April. We congratulate
all these patriots and wish them success in the important tasks they
and their colleagues in our provincial governments have to accomplish
over the next five years.
For the first time in the history of democratic South Africa, all our
Premiers are cadres of the ANC. This has come about as a result of the
overwhelming confidence in our movement demonstrated by the masses of
our people during our General Elections. That same confidence places
an enormous responsibility on these Premiers and all ANC cadres deployed
in all spheres of government to ensure that we live up to the expectations
of all our people.
The election of these Premiers will also make an important contribution
to the effort to achieve gender equality in our country. The first Premiers
of democratic South Africa elected in 1994 were all men. Since then,
only one of our Provinces has had women Premiers. The elections that
initiate our Second Decade of Liberation have given us the possibility
significantly to increase the number of women Premiers, who now number
4 out of 9.
For the first time also, as an expression of our movement's firm commitment
to build a non-racial South Africa, the ANC has appointed candidate Premiers
drawn from a number of the racial groups that constitute our diverse
population. This makes the firm statement that our movement will not
waver from the pursuit of the objective of building a non-racial democracy.
These developments constitute an important signal of the determination
of our movement further to consolidate our achievements in building a
non-racial and non-sexist society, and ensure that we end our Second
Decade of Liberation having made qualitatively new advances towards the
realisation of the goals of non-racism and non-sexism that are so fundamental
to the very character of our movement.
In addition, of course, our Constitution imposes an obligation on all
of us to work for the achievement of these objectives. Accordingly, what
our movement has done as it appointed its candidate Premiers demonstrates
our commitment consistently to respond to the provisions of our fundamental
law.
All these developments confirm that indeed our people have much to celebrate
as they observe the end of our First Decade of Freedom and mark the beginning
of the Second. They confirm the reality that our people did not struggle
in vain. The sacrifices they made to liberate themselves from racist
oppression and exploitation are being rewarded with the incremental realisation
of the goal of a better life for all.
But even as we held our third General Elections and prepared for the
celebration of our First Decade of Democracy, there were some who were
intent on finding negatives that would serve to belittle our achievements
and encourage doubts about our future.
The "Los Angeles Times" edition of April 15, for instance
carried comments by some of our compatriots. It reported politics Professor
Tom Lodge of the University of Witwatersrand as saying that the ANC was
'likely to dominate for 10 more years' and that "It's a matter of
how much that party is prepared to play by the rules, and how much it's
going to allow other parties to grow."
It also quotes Patrick Laurence, misleadingly
described as a "political
analyst of the independent Helen Suzman Foundation", as saying that
'the ANC 's commitment to democracy was untested because its majority
has been so huge.' He went on to say: "The real test is when your
majority is dwindling and there's a real prospect of becoming a minority.
The test is whether the ruling party is prepared to yield power, and
we don't know yet how they will react. It's quite sobering."
The "LA Times" also reported about a "white voter",
Anjanette Phillips. It said 'Phillips recalled growing up under South
Africa's last white president, Frederik W. de Klerk.' "Lots of people
say, 'I wish I could have that government back'. It'll never be the same.
We used to have open doors, open windows. Today, you have to be locked
up in your house."
The newspaper ended the article with the following
words: "Just
days earlier, Phillips was in her car at a stoplight when someone smashed
the passenger-side window and grabbled her handbag."
Naturally, readers of the "Los Angeles Times" not
familiar with our country and its history would draw various negative
conclusions
from reading this article.
One of these would be that the future of democracy in our country is
not assured. They would believe that the threat to democracy in our country
emanates from the ANC, whose democratic credentials are evidently unknown
and untested.
These readers would also come to the conclusion
that the accession to power by the ANC has compromised the quality
of life of our people, certainly
as this relates to crime. They would also conclude that "lots of
people" felt safer and preferred to live under the apartheid regime
led by F.W. de Klerk, rather than an ANC democratic government.
One Jeremy Vine, described as "the BBC's Africa Correspondent" had
written in 1999, soon after our General Elections of that year: "Then
there is the magic of Nelson Mandela. His aura, as captivating in his
own country as it is in other people's, has papered over the cracks.
Corruption in national and provincial government, sky-rocketing crime,
and above all, the grinding poverty - they all seem to become less important
when Mr Mandela is asked about them. His saintly status has bullet-proofed
his party (the ANC).
"With two-thirds, (the ANC) could change
chunks of (the Constitution).With so much support (66%), the ANC can
do what it likes. It will be accountable
to the electors again in five years' time, but between now and then it
can govern with cotton wool in its ears.The scale of the ANC's victory
suggests that some of its support could be flaky. The party's only fear
must be that one day, with Mr Mandela gone, the patience of its long-suffering
supporters finally gives out."
When they heard this account 5 years ago, the BBC listeners who are
not familiar with our country and its history would also have reached
all manner of negative conclusions. Again they would have concluded that
the quality of life under a democratically elected ANC government had
taken a turn for the worse.
They would have concluded that the problems afflicting
the masses of our people were caused by the ANC and that the absence
of a popular rebellion
against our movement, the collapse of its "flaky support",
was due solely to the "magic of Nelson Mandela".
They would also have concluded that the ANC constituted a threat to
democracy and therefore should be stopped from getting a two-thirds majority.
We do not know what Mr Vine said when the ANC
obtained a two-thirds majority during the life of our second democratic
parliament, and did
not use this majority to "change chunks of the Constitution".
We do not know what he will now say, given that the ANC has obtained
almost 70% support from the electorate, despite its "flaky support".
What we know is that he and the others quoted
by the "Los Angeles
Times" seem to be averse to telling the truth that all the major
problems confronting our people are part of the legacy of colonialism
and apartheid. They are unwilling to tell the truth that in 10 years,
the democratically elected ANC government has done more to improve the
lives of all our people than all previous white minority regimes.
We also know that they are unwilling to tell the truth that both in
1999 and in 2004, the objectives spelt out in the ANC Manifestoes did
not require any Constitutional amendments. Similarly, they will not and
have not told the truth that the Manifestoes of the same opposition parties
that accused the ANC of being a threat to democracy contained objectives
that would necessitate Constitutional changes.
Neither will they tell the truth that it was the ANC that led the struggle
for the victory of the democratic revolution in our country, the one
political formation whose members and supporters sacrificed everything,
including their lives, to achieve this outcome. They will not inform
the public that the same ANC is the principal author of the Constitution
and the architect of the democracy they allege the ANC threatens.
In 1999 and in 2004, the masses of our people demonstrated their firm
rejection of all the lies that are told about their country and their
movement. As they did in our first democratic elections of 1994, both
in 1999 and in 2004, they made the clear statement that they will not
be persuaded to turn their backs on the movement that led them as they
fought for and achieved the priceless objective of freedom.
On Freedom Day, the peoples of the world will gather at the Union Buildings,
in other parts of our country, and at many locations in the world, to
salute the great masses of our people who led the assault that destroyed
the apartheid system, and now grapple with the challenge to transform
theirs into a democratic, peaceful, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous
country.
We wish all our people a Happy Freedom Day and success as they join
in a people's contract to build the South Africa of their dream, and
ours. The governments they elected in the 2004 General Elections will
work with them as part of that people's contract, committed to serve
all the people of South Africa.
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