25 June 1999
South Africa House, London,
Who would have thought as a young student at Sussex that we were to make a history that now truly resonates throughout the world? These were such small beginnings, a few initial actions of committed people with a vision, combined with a great outrage at the injustices that racial division and oppression were meting out on our people and a refusal to sit beck and believe that things had to be this way.
From our beloved Oliver Tambo, who literally sacrificed his whole life, to each British housewife, student, parent, who refused to buy South African oranges in supermarkets, we underscored the great lesson of our world today. Ordinary people, united in a vision of peace and a future of human beings working together to build a better world, have shown that we can make a difference to the quality of lives of millions.
I salute you all gathered here today, for the great inspiration and example of the Anti-Apartheid Movement. Now, when an unstable world more than ever needs to give voice to the aspirations and needs of ordinary people, I pay the highest tribute to the individuals involved in building and sustaining the AAM in Britain and elsewhere. On behalf of every South African, with all the goodwill and strength symbolised in my office, we salute the nobility and fundamental goodness of you who so clearly understood the indivisibility and interdependence of each human being.
Thabo Mbeki
Cape Town
June 25, 1999.