Freedom Park, Salvokop, City of Tshwane, 16th December 2004
Master of Ceremonies,
Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan,
Chairperson of the Freedom Park Board of Trustees, Getrude Shope,
CEO of the Freedom Park Trust, Dr. Wally Serote,
Members of the Board of Trustees,
Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Mayor of Tshwane, Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
We have gathered once more at this quiet place of contemplation and remembrance - the Freedom Park - on this important day in our national calendar, the Day of National Reconciliation, during the year in which we celebrate a decade of freedom. It is indeed fitting that we meet at this national shrine dedicated to our heroes and heroines, whose seminal contribution to all of us is the gift of freedom.
Commencing the journey of reconciliation in our country ten years ago, President Mandela said during his inauguration as the President of our Republic:
"The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us."
Two years later, as we adopted the Constitution of our Republic in 1996 we declared in its Preamble that:
"(We) adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to -
As part of our efforts to respond to the call by President Mandela that the time had come for healing the wounds and bridging the chasms that divide us, as well as honour the constitutional injunction to "heal the divisions of the past...", among other things we established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to assist our country to unearth the truth about the many human rights violations that happened as our people engaged in the bitter struggle to free our country from apartheid, to forgive the perpetrators and offer some reparation to those who had been harmed.
The creation of this Freedom Park is in part a response to the recommendations of the TRC, that we should retain the national memory of our past and collectively honour those who fought and sacrificed for our freedom.
When it has been built, it must be a tribute to the indomitable human spirit displayed by millions of our people. It must be a symbol of victory of peace over war, a celebration and reaffirmation of our common humanity and human evolution, a shrine that will constantly remind all future generations of their obligation forever to avoid the depraved deeds that occurred in our country because of human folly and greed.
In the past, this day, December 16, was observed as the Day of the Covenant, celebrating the conflicts of the past, with their results in terms of victors and the vanquished. Deliberately we took the decision to keep December 16 as a public holiday, but focused on reconciliation among those who had been enemies.
We sought to emphasise that among us there are no victors and the vanquished, and that the triumph of a non-racial and non-sexist democracy in our country constitutes an historic victory that belongs to all of us, regardless of who fought on which side.
It was because we wanted to create the necessary space for all our people, black and white, together to enjoy the fruits of this common victory, together to use this victory as the base on which to build a South Africa that belongs to all who live in it, that we took the decision to respond to the conflicts of the past through the TRC, rather than a process of retribution directed at settling scores.
By this means we were making the pledge to ourselves that we would not allow past hatreds and enmities to determine our future. We were making the firm statement that while we will not forget the past, nor abandon the task to address its legacy, we shall nevertheless not allow ourselves to be imprisoned by that past.
To have done otherwise would have been to misuse the possibilities presented by the present, by imposing historical conflicts that cannot be undone, on a future we have the rare possibility and obligation to define.
To have done otherwise would have been wilfully and recklessly to surrender to the dictates of the ghosts of a past of whose painful results we are painfully aware, of the extraordinary opportunity we have, to be the architects of something new, beautiful, noble and humane.
Firmly, we said - no to all that!
But there are others whose opinions we should respect, who have thought that the forgiveness and the national reconciliation we sought to achieve by engaging in the TRC processes was but an exercise in delusion, a grossly misguided attempt to avoid what would necessarily be an intense struggle between the new victors and the newly vanquished, to exorcise the ghosts of the past.
One of these was the esteemed African thinker and writer, the Nigerian, Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate for literature. In his book reflecting on the work the TRC and the philosophy that informed this effort, entitled "The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness", he has written:
"But will the South African doctrine work, ultimately? Will society be truly purified as a result of this open articulation of what is known? For even while we speak of 'revelation', it is only revelation in concrete particulars, the ascription of faces to deeds, admission by individual personae of roles within known criminalities, affirmation by the already identified of what they formally denied. Nothing, in reality, is new. The difference is that knowledge is being shared, collectively, and entered formally into the archives of that nation.
"So, back to the question, this procedural articulation of the known, will it truly heal society? Will it achieve the reconciliation that is the goal of the initiators of this heroic (TRC) process? For it is heroic - let that value be frankly attributed. Even those of us who, conceding our unsaintliness, distance ourselves from the Christian - or indeed Buddhist -beatitudes, do acknowledge that forgiveness is a value that if far more humanly exacting than vengeance. And so - will this undertaking truly 'reconcile' the warring tribes of that (South African) community? My inclination is very much toward a negative prognosis."
Perhaps Wole Soyinka is right that ten years into our democracy, we too must honestly ask ourselves the question - but will the South African doctrine work, ultimately? Has it worked?
Has our society been truly purified as a result of the open articulation of what we knew about our past, thus achieving what he called "the ascription of faces to deeds, admission by individual personae of roles within known criminalities, affirmation by the already identified of what they formally denied"?
Is it true that, in reality, we have achieved nothing that is new?
Has our undertaking truly to reconcile "the warring tribes of (our) community" succeeded? Or should we repeat after Wole Soyinka that our inclination too, is "very much toward a negative prognosis"?
Put simply, has our effort to achieve national reconciliation failed! Were we wrong to have thought that "the warring (black and white) tribes of our community" could be reconciled on the basis that we should not build their common future on the basis of defining some as victors and others as the vanquished?
Wole Soyinka was right that if our process of national reconciliation consisted only of the "revelation (of known misdeeds of the past) in concrete particulars, (and) the ascription of faces to deeds" of gross human rights violations, "this procedural articulation of the known" would not have served truly to heal our society.
But what serves truly to advance our society towards its healing, towards bridging the chasms that divide us of which Nelson Mandela spoke, is not merely what Soyinka called the "procedural articulation of the known". That procedural articulation of the known was a necessary part of the process of "healing the divisions of the past", but not the alpha and the omega of our struggle for national reconciliation.
The procedural articulation of the known through the TRC process was but an element of a dream millions of our people share, to create something that is new, beautiful, noble and humane. This is a dream about building a new South Africa at peace with itself, a new South Africa of reconciliation among "the warring tribes of (our) community", a new South Africa that in its particular details genuinely belongs to all who live in it, black and white.
41 years ago in 1963, on the occasion of the celebration of the centenary of the Emancipation Proclamation that marked the end of slavery in the United States, the great African American leader who is our hero too, the Rev Martin Luther King Jr, spoke about his dream for his people and his country, the United States of America.
With your permission, I would like to present to you some of what he said, believing that his dream for his country and people is the same dream we dream for our own country and people. He said:
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
"I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."
As he began his historic address, Martin Luther King Jr said the Emancipation Proclamation a hundred year before "came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free."
Ten years into our own liberation, I am convinced we are entitled to say something about our country that is different. I am certain that we have every reason to contest Wole Soyinka's "negative prognosis" about our country.
I have seen this with my own eyes that the sons and daughters of those formerly oppressed and the sons and daughters of former oppressors have been able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood and sisterhood.
I have seen this with my own eyes that little black boys and black girls have been able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walked together as sisters and brothers.
I know it as a fact that we have begun to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood and sisterhood.
I know it as a fact that we have begun to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that the freedom we enjoy together is our only guarantee that tomorrow the sun will continue to shine on all of us.
Because I have seen white South Africans and black South Africans strive together to confront the legacy of a former "desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression", to use Martin Luther King's words, I know that we have begun the slow and arduous task "to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope."
Together we are witness to the ugly spectacle of humanity in many parts of the world tearing itself apart in conflicts inspired by racial, ethnic, religious and cultural identities.
We see violent and unnecessary deaths occur because many among our own human species have found it too difficult to carry the burden identified by Wole Soyinka, that forgiveness is a value that if far more humanly exacting than vengeance.
Having seen all of this, surely all of us must agree that we were right to choose the path of national reconciliation. Surely, together we must say that our deeds have proved that Soyinka's negative prognosis was wrong and that we were right to share the dream that Martin Luther King Jr dreamt.
Standing in close proximity to the evolving story of a new society in birth, it may be that we do not see what we have achieved, that is the envy of all humanity. Because we know what we must still do fully to restore the dignity of all our people, we speak only of what we have as yet failed to achieve and therefore beat our drums loudly to draw attention to the ugly remnants of the legacy we inherited.
Speaking in celebration of the Centenary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr said "One hundred years later, the Negro lives in a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land."
A decade after bringing into force our own Emancipation Proclamation, we can make the claim that no South African is today an exile in his or her own land. We have all become South African again, no longer citizens of Bantustans, no longer temporary sojourners or surplus people, no longer victims of a philosophy and practice that disrespected the self-evident truth that all people are born equal.
But, as honesty demands, we admit this everyday that millions in our country of freedom find themselves marooned in lonely islands of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity, languishing in the corners of South African society.
As long as this persists, so long must we agree with Martin Luther King Jr that with regard to many of our people, democratic South Africa has still not honoured its promissory note to provide a better life for all, that democratic South Africa has given millions of black people "a bad cheque which has come back marked 'insufficient funds' ".
We meet here on our Day of National Reconciliation to recommit ourselves to the goals of national unity and reconciliation and a common patriotism. We meet to restate the pledge that we will continue to work together, black and white, inspired by a common patriotism, to honour the promissory note delivered by the democratic victory,
We meet to commit ourselves to these objectives under the sad circumstance that death has snatched from us an outstanding compatriot, a creative spirit in our midst, a member of the Board of Trustees of Freedom Park, an architect of the better future towards which we strive, the outstanding architect Revel Fox.
I am privileged to extend to his family, friends and colleagues in the important Freedom Park project the heartfelt condolences of our Government, our people, as well as my own. Together we must give the undertaking that we will do everything we can to help realise his own vision of the South Africa of his dreams.
On this day, when we meet to dedicate ourselves to the twin processes and objectives of national reconciliation and social transformation, I am honoured to extend our Government's best wishes to all our people as well as the season's message of peace, prosperity, happiness and goodwill.
I am privileged to convey the same message to all our foreign guests currently spending some time with us, including those who are in our country to represent their governments, countries and international institutions.
And let all of us pay particular care as we take to our roads, to ensure that wherever we go, we Arrive Alive!
A Merry Christmas to everybody and a Happy New Year! Thank you!