Midrand, 16 November 2000
Master of Ceremonies, Mr Aggrey Klaaste, Editor-in-Chief of the Sowetan, Mr Gerhard van Niekerk, Managing Director of Old Mutual, Ms Cecilia Khuzwayo, Acting Chief Executive of the SABC, community builders, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
I would like to thank the Sowetan most sincerely for giving me the opportunity to be here tonight as we honour those among our people who have dedicated their lives to the upliftment of all our communities.
We are here to sing the praises of those devoted men and women with ideals and imagination, who, against all odds, through their conscious, purposeful and humane actions inspire our entire nation to work towards a better future.
In our midst are great men and women of practical wisdom, who through their selfless contributions to the happiness of others are helping all of us to answer the question - what kind of people are we!
I believe that every finalist in this room tonight understands that his or her journey to this happy occasion began with a personal mission, the idea that one person can do something that benefits another.
Surely that journey must have been sustained by the appreciation of the profoundly humanist thought - cast thy bread upon the waters and thou shalt find it after many days!
The striving towards the beautiful and the new represented by the community builders we salute tonight should distinguish every South African as we try to create a free, just, people-centred and caring society. When the Sowetan started this nation-building initiative some 12 years ago, we were still not free.
This initiative has therefore attained its maturity during our years of struggle and freedom, national reconciliation and social transformation.
This has shaped our community builders as well while they have also helped to shape the new society that is being born through their hard work, their selflessness and their commitment to help their neighbours.
Our community builders of the decade are people with perspective and vision, humanists who have understood not only the legacy of our past and the realities of our present, but also what kind of life the future should hold for all of us.
I believe that it is a profoundly humane impulse that inspires our community builders, our nation-builders, to embrace the idea that to participate in activities targeted at achieving the greater good of all is in itself a humanising vocation.
In a country where apartheid had sought to destroy our very humanity and reduce people to the status of being less than human, what generations of community builders and freedom fighters have done is to assert the nobility of each and every human being. Our responsibility remains to overcome fully that which dehumanises us and to build a just world, a South Africa that belongs to all who live in it, and an Africa which belongs as an equal to the world community of nations and continents.
This sense of taking special and personal responsibility for attaining a progressive and dynamic African society is perhaps akin to what Kwame Nkrumah, the great African statesman, many years ago called the African personality.
Nkrumah writes that:
"The personality of the African which was stunted in this process (of colonialism) can only be retrieved from these ruins if we make a conscious effort to restore Africa's ancient glory. It is only in conditions of total freedom and independence that the aspirations of our people will see real fulfilment and the African genius find his best expression. Our aim must be to create a society that is not static but dynamic, a society in which equal opportunities are assured for all."(from Selected Speeches Volume 5 Kwame Nkrumah, compiled by Samuel Obeng, Afram Publications, Accra 1997).
The work of individuals who find themselves in particular situations as they care for our aged, impart literacy skills, establish creches, build houses and see to our health needs, contributes decisively to the definition of that African personality and the building of the dynamic African society of which Kwame Nkrumah spoke.
The building of this new society begins right here in every village, town, locality, where our new men and women, armed with a new patriotism, embark on programmes and projects that encourage self-reliance and shared benefits.
When he analysed the Sowetan's Nation Building initiative in 1994, Professor Chabanyi Manganyi made the following perceptive points: "Just as sovereignty and patriotism have to be earned, so it is with nationhood. The achievements of Nation Building reminds us that nation-hood cannot be delivered as simply a product of political liberation, nor can its coming into being be taken for granted.
"Nation-building is the active prospecting of this national treasure through the creation of practical, social, economic and political challenges and opportunities for individuals and communities to confront."(Foreword to The Making of a Nation: Five years of Sowetan's Nation Building Initiative, March 1994, p.6)
I am sure we will all agree that the sentiments expressed by Manganyi remain true even today. For as we strive towards an end to poverty, towards uplifting our disadvantaged communities, towards the emancipation of women, towards safety and security for all our citizens, we are indeed engaged in the process of nation building. This act of nation building must also mean a common effort of truly committed South Africans, irrespective of colour or creed, working for the benefit of all our people.
For us, nation building is also about nurturing the oneness of the South African people. In this context, we have to continue to intensify our efforts to break down the prejudices and end the imbalances that divide our people and thus slow down the building of a diverse but united nation.
We must create spaces and encourage a new socialisation of all our people, and especially our children, the learning of different languages and ways of doing things, which will ensure that black and white evolve a common understanding of the future we desire for ourselves.
As we create a sense of common belonging, our community builders among us are driven by a sense not of exclusion but of embrace.
It is through this immediate sense of belonging within a community that national belonging develops and a dynamic understanding of our place in the world.
The image that we present as South Africans to the world must be one of confidence, pride and immense determination to overcome our problems and to take our place as an equal among the nations.
Your government is committed to accelerate change, working with community leaders at the grassroots level. Working together, we will win.
Thanks to the sterling work of Dr Aggrey Klaaste and his team, and all the sponsors, community building is proceeding apace and with it the birth of the new South Africa.
We must thank the private sector in contributing to this process and in assisting in community development.
Warm congratulations to the recipients of the Community Builder Award.
I am truly honoured to have the privilege to salute our community builders for their leadership qualities, their humanism, their virtues and their strengths. It is they and others like them who enable us to move together towards a higher, nobler, richer life for all and the birth of a South African people defined by embrace not rejection, by national unity, not exclusion.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency