11 May 2003
Parents and Spouses,
Brothers, Sisters, Children and Relatives of the Deceased,
Leaders of SAMWU, COSATU and other trade union formations,
Premiers of the Northern Cape and the Free State,
Ministers, MEC's, Mayors, members of our legislatures and councillors,
Comrades,
Friends and fellow South Africans:
Thousands of our people were gathered at various places on May Day when the terrible news came that those we are burying today had perished as their bus plunged into a dam in the Free State.
We had gathered on May Day to salute the workers of our country, including the deceased. We had convened to thank the workers for what they had done and sacrificed so that they, together with the rest of our people, should achieve our liberation from racist domination.
We had met to make a commitment that we would continue the struggle to improve the lives of the workers and the poor of our country. Like many others in the world, our people were enjoying a public holiday, a day of rest from the toil that defines the daily lives of our working people.
None of us had reckoned with what happened at Saulspoort Dam in the Free State. We did not know that the municipal workers who travelled from Kimberly to Phuthaditshaba would return to Kimberly in coffins, never having reached the May Day Rally in Phuthaditshaba alive.
A day of celebration turned into a day of mourning. A day of happiness turned into a day of grief.
As we accompany our comrades, our parents, our brothers and sisters to their resting place, we say to the family members, your grief is the pain of the nation. Your sorrow is our sadness. The tragedy that befell all these workers has devastated all our people.
On behalf of the government and the people of South Africa and on my own name, I would like to convey our condolences to all the family members of the 51 departed friends, comrades and compatriots.
Important members of those who constitute part of the mass army of activists that must change our country for the better were taken away on the morning of a special day in the calendar of the workers of the world - May Day.
We have come here today to try to comfort and ease the burden of grief of those who have been robbed of precious relatives, friends and co-workers by the pitiless hand of death.
These are compatriots who, as workers, as leaders both at work and in the communities, have undoubtedly made their contribution to the tasks we pursue together of protecting our freedom and working to provide a better life for all.
Because the workers who died knew that for our freedom to be complete, we had to act together fully to transform our country to a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous nation, they continued to be part of the on-going struggle for total change.
They continued to engage in this struggle for total transformation, even when some among us, had wrongly thought that it is the duty solely of a democratic government to work for the final defeat of the legacy of apartheid.
They met their untimely death on their way to celebrate the advances that we have made as we march to a truly transformed South Africa. They remained committed to their Trade Union, which they knew and understood to be part of the great forces that will take us to the new South Africa we are working to build.
We mourn and salute these humble and yet great South Africans because through their work, South Africa is free.
We mourn and salute these humble and yet great South Africans, because, without fanfare, without seeking glory and status, they continued to build democracy at the local level.
We mourn and salute these humble and yet great South Africans, because even when, at times, the obstinate legacy of the past, seemed to delay our march to a better tomorrow, they refused to be discouraged because, however rough the road may be, their eyes and minds were firmly fixed on the destination we defined together.
We mourn and salute these humble and yet great South Africans, because when we say that the national call for Letsema and Vuk'uzenzele is successful, it is because our country is blessed with activists, such as our departed comrades, who spared no effort to contribute to the national effort what they could.
We mourn and salute these humble and yet great South Africans, because when we appear to be tall, whether in our organisations or in government, it is because we stand on their shoulders.
Today, the South African Municipal Workers Union is poorer. Cosatu is poorer. The people of South Africa are poorer. We have all been robbed of true patriots, dedicated soldiers in the reconstruction and development of our country and workers, through whose efforts we will bring about a better life for all.
When our people met in Kliptown, in Johannesburg, in 1955, and concluded the Freedom Charter with the words:
"These freedoms we will fight for, side by side, throughout our lives, until we have won our liberty", they reflected the commitment of the workers of our country never to abandon or betray the struggle.
Accordingly, when we lost our comrades at Saulspoort Dam, we knew that we had lost combatants for the reconstruction and development of our country.
The very heavens turned black with grief. Our day of celebration turned into a night of grief.
While our tongues express the sadness of our hearts, we will be doing the right thing if we honour the memory of our departed compatriots by embracing the ideals that they stood for and work harder for the society that, through their life-time commitment, they sought to achieve.
Accordingly, in their memory we must, together, consolidate the gains that we have made to improve the performance of our economy so that we are able to create sufficient and better jobs for our people.
All of us, as South Africans, must do everything that is necessary and possible to solve the problem of unemployment so that all our people are able to maintain themselves and their families through dignified work incomes they earn through their own efforts.
In their memory we must, together, continue to improve our capacity to deliver more infrastructure and essential services to all our people -housing, water, electricity, health care, and ensure that all those who are eligible to state support, the elderly, disabled and children, do access the social grants that our democratic state provides.
In their memory we must, together, as civil servants, serve our people with dedication, humility and care and strive to give efficient service that helps to change the lives of all South Africans for the better.
In their memory, together as South Africans, we must dismantle, forever, the barriers that still define some of our communities along racial lines and bring to an end the unacceptable apartheid stereotypes that perpetuate the entrenched the mentality of fear, suspicion and divisions of Us and Them.
In their memory, together, let us see and promote the many positive things that many South Africans are doing daily, and declare for the world that we are, by word and deed, Proudly South African.
We say these things, in their memory, because today we are bidding farewell to true soldiers of the new South Africa. They lived the life of struggle for the betterment of our country. They lived the life of commitment to the transformation of our country. They lived as part of the great effort to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment in our country and continent.
Six days from now we will gather in Soweto, in Johannesburg, to say farewell to an outstanding leader of those we are burying today, Walter Sisulu. A worker, like them, he rose to the towering position of one of the irreplaceable architects of our freedom. In response to his death, the whole world has joined in an unprecedented tribute to a South African patriot, democrat, humanist and revolutionary who had become a citizen of the world.
We do not know how many Walter Sisulu's of the future died in Saulspoort Dam when the bus that was carrying the municipal workers of Kimberly to Phuthaditshaba sank, taking 51 lives, those that we are burying today.
What we know is that we lost patriots who tried as best they could to follow in his footsteps. To have lost so many at one go constitutes a severe loss to all of us, and to our country as a whole.
That we lost them means that we have a task, multiplied by the number of coffins that will, today, be placed deep in the bowels of the earth that has given us and the world the diamonds of Kimberly, to continue the struggle that Walter Sisulu waged, to pursue the goals that the workers who died in Saulspoort Dam embraced.
What happened at Saulspoort Dam should not happen again. Together, we must do everything we can that this tragedy does not visit our country, our workers and our people again. Our government, the government you elected, will do everything necessary to ensure that we achieve this result.
I would like to thank you, the families of the deceased, for the dignified manner in which in you have handled yourselves in the face of a very painful loss. I would like to thank the people of Galeshewe and Kimberly for their compassion and their sense of human solidarity.
I would like to thank the provincial governments of the Free State and the Northern Cape, the concerned municipal authorities, and the national government for everything that has been done to respond to the tragedy of May Day.
Consistent with our traditions, let us continue to mark the passing away of those whose bodies we lay to rest today with, dignity and respect.
Robalang ka Khotso!
Dinatla tsa Dinatla!
Nilale ngenxeba, mz' oNtsundu!