Durban, 6 June 2003
Chairperson,
Your Majesty, King Goodwill Zwelithini,
Premier of KwaZulu-Natal,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am honoured and privileged to receive an accolade bearing the name of the great hero of the 20th Century, Mahatma Gandhi. I accept this Gandhi Award for Peace and Reconciliation on behalf of the countless number of selfless individuals, in this country, in India and all the developing cou!es, who sacrificed and continue to sacrifice their lives to further the cause of freedom, democracy and development.
I would like particularly to dedicate this award to the many African leaders, activists, government officials, soldiers and others who continue to work tirelessly to ensure that our continent experiences peace and stability. This, as we all know, is central to the regeneration of our continent.
I am indeed happy to address a gathering of comrades and friends who are today working very hard to advance the struggle for freedom and development to which Gandhi dedicated his entire life. Many people in this country and across the world would readily agree with the ideals of the Gandhi Development Trust of Rediscovering Compassion and Reinventing Freedom, working towards peace and harmony.
I think it is also important that you are marking the centenary of the founding of two illustrious newspapers, dedicated to the struggle for freedom of our people, Ilanga lase Natal founded by Dr John Langalibalele Dube on 10 April 1903, and Indian Opinion, which was established by Mahatma Gandhi on 4 June 1903.
I am told that, for the past few days, you have gathered here to deliberate on the very important issues of the role of the alternative media as the theme of your conference indicates, "Empowerment, Human Rights, Mobilisation, Peace and Development - A Century of the Alternative Media".
Few people are aware that Gandhi was both a dedicated journalist as well as a political activist, who understood quite clearly the importance of reporting accurately and factually as well as using his journalistic skills to advance society.
This understanding would find resonance with Chinua Achebe when he says, in his novel, The Anthills of the Savannah, that:
"The cock that crows in the morning belongs to one household but his voice is the property of the neighbourhood. You should be proud that this bright cockerel that wakes up the whole village comes from your compound."
(Pan Books, Heinemann, 1987, p. 122.)
Indeed, Mahatma Gandhi used his newspaper, the Indian Opinion, to speak to all our people about freedom, equality and justice. Through his work, together with other newspapers of the oppressed in this country, our people responded to the crows in the morning that belonged to the cock of one household, yet it became the property of the neighbourhood.
These masses, in South Africa, India and other colonised places, adopted this message that called for an end to colonialism and apartheid and actively engaged in the struggle so that today we can meet as free people.
Clearly, to advance the noble ideals of Gandhi we need the kind of media that Gandhi, Dube, Sol Plaatjie and others, established at the turn of the 20th Century, which propagated the liberating views of compassion, solidarity, justice, equality, freedom and development.
As we are gathered here, it would be important to remember the words of Mahatma Gandhi when he said:
"Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man (and woman) whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him (and her)." (Website -Gandhi Institute for Non-Violence.)
I am confident that when Gandhi got involved in the long and illustrious struggle for the freedom of India and when many of his contemporaries here in South Africa embarked on a similar course, they had dared to 'recall the face of the poorest and weakest' and reached a correct determination that the steps they were taking would be of immense benefit to these masses of our people.
Accordingly, in the long, hard and harsh struggle for freedom of our people, these leaders did not flinch because of the brutal and brutish manner of those who had abrogated to themselves the role of a god over their colonised subjects.
Using his publication of the Indian Opinion, Mahatma Gandhi collaborated with John Dube and his newspaper and jointly set an example of how one can be both a journalist and a political activist and engage in a principled struggle for freedom, organising both the Indians and Africans to live together in peace and harmony and in this way, planting the seeds of a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist society.
Further, Gandhi who was one of the founders of the Natal Indian Congress in 1894, worked together with the African National Congress when it was formed in 1912 so as to bring about freedom of the oppressed, and improve the conditions of the poorest and weakest of our people.
In this regard, today we owe our freedom to this outstanding son of India and Africa, who symbolises the irrefutable fact that, the fates of our people are bound together because of the co-incidence of circumstances that ensured that Mahatma Gandhi was both Indian and African.
Because of this, when Gandhi led India to independence in 1947, we too celebrated that freedom as our victory. Indeed, a liberated India adopted our struggle for freedom as its own.
Thus, our victory in 1994 was a culmination of the noble struggle in which the name of Mahatma Gandhi is inscribed in gold on the canvass of freedom fighters, along those of Dube, Pixlely Ka Isaka Seme, Sol Plaatjie, Chief Albert Luthuli and many other heroes and heroines of our struggle.
We have gathered here today because we have been inspired by the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi. As we do our work, in the different walks of life, we should continue to be inspired by his words that we must 'recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man (and woman) whom you have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him (and her)'.
Once we have recalled this face of the poorest and weakest, we will not steal from the public purse and deny these people the possibility to lead a better life.
Once we have recalled this face of the poorest and weakest we shall avoid telling lies so that our governments would be forced to use limited resources to refute what we know are, in reality, misrepresentations of reality.
Once we have recalled this face of the poorest and weakest we will respond swiftly to the needs of the most vulnerable in our society so that we accelerate the process towards a better life.
Again, Mahatma Gandhi said that, " We must be the change we wish to see". (Website, Gandhi Institute for Non-violence). As we know, Gandhi lived the life of humility, compassion, solidarity, fearless commitment to freedom, equality and justice.
Like Gandhi, our lives must be defined by an unwavering commitment to improve the lives of the poor because we wish to see improved living conditions. This also requires that we conduct a sustained struggle against corruption, against the abuse of positions of authority for theft of resources that belong to the people, for self-enrichment instead of serving the people.
We should demonstrate, through our actions, that we are doing all we can to end racism, sexism and the discrimination against the disabled, because we wish to see a society characterised by equality between all the people.
In our daily work, we should ensure that we lay the basis for an economy that is strong and growing; an economy that brings about the development and prosperity of our countries and peoples because we wish to see an end to poverty and underdevelopment.
Mahatma Gandhi's everlasting legacy to South Africa, his motherland, India and indeed the world, is his vision of non-violence and love. I am told that there were ten volunteers who walked here from Tolstoy Farm in Johannesburg to Durban, to commemorate this great occasion and to promote the values that Gandhi has bequeathed to us.
It is therefore fitting to recall Leo Tolstoy's own comments about the Indian Opinion concerning love, non-violence and passive resistance in his letter to Mahatma Gandhi on 7 September 1910:
"Socialism, Communism, Anarchism, Salvation Armies, the growth of crime, freedom from toil, the increasingly absurd luxury of the rich and the increased misery of the poor, the fearfully rising number of suicides -are all indications of that inner contradiction which must and will be resolved. And, of course, resolved in such a manner that the law of love will be recognized and all reliance on force abandoned. Your work in the Transvaal, which to us seems to be at the end of the earth, is yet in the centre of our interest and supplies the most weighty practical proof; in which the world can now share, and not only the Christian but all the peoples of the world can participate."
(Recollections and Essays by Leo Tolstoy, Oxford University Press, 1937, pp. 433-439)
As you are aware, our continental organisation, the African Union, is engaged in on-going work of bringing peace and stability to our continent. In this regard, there are already encouraging outcomes in Burundi, Angola, Sudan and Cote d'Ivoire and we continue to give special attention to the problems in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as part of this country's progress to peace, democracy and development.
We will continue our work inspired by the work of Gandhi and ensure that indeed we resolve our conflicts, as Tolstoy said, 'in such a manner that the law of love will be recognised and all reliance on force abandoned'.
This award, which we dedicate to the efforts of all Africans who are working tirelessly to end conflicts on our continent, will communicate a message that our people appreciate the work that these African leaders and people are doing.
We will continue this work because we are all aware that the renewal of our continent cannot take place in conditions of war and conflict.
Please continue with your good work.
I thank you.