Speech to be delivered by Dr Z. J. de Beer
at the Opening of the Codesa Conference
World Trade Centre, Johannesburg.

Friday, 20 December 1991

When this Democratic Party was founded less than three years ago, we never dreamed that we would so soon be attending the Convention for a Democratic South Africa. We pay tribute to all who have made it possible.

All of us here present share our love of justice, and of this land and its people. We share more: we share our faith in the ability of men and women of goodwill to achieve peace and prosperity.

Our task is to write the constitution which will enable those who come after us to be proud citizens of a free South Africa commanding respect in the community of nations.

We are deeply conscious that we have to approach this task not writing as it were on a clean slate, but dealing with a society which is the product of centuries of wrong. Much rightly said of the terrible harm that was done in the name of apartheid: but we dare not pretend that injustice began in 1948. The distortions caused by race and sex discrimination have been present for centuries. Their impact is there for all to see in the life of our people today.

It is necessary but not sufficient for us to close the book on yesterday's society and say: "from tomorrow we shall do justice, and there will be equal opportunities. We must do more than this, and achieve all that can be achieved to repair the damage the of past. Yet we must tell truth to ourselves and the world, and say that our ability to achieve a perfect society is limited by the extent of our resources, human and material - just as is that every other society in the world. Having looked fearlessly at the facts, we must follow the shortest road towards perfection, in the knowledge that we may never reach it, but in the that determination we shall strive towards it with each year and with each day passes .

As we face our monumental task, we ask: ''from where will the force, the strength and the drive come to achieve it?" Ultimately, the power to save lives and print books and build cities and grow food and sail the seas and work below the earth and fly to the moon has come from the wish of ordinary people for a better life - for themselves, their families and their fellows.Ultimately, the efforts made have been made by individuals, each following his or her own path to a desired destiny. That which sets people free to use their powers in the improvement of life maximises achievement: that which seeks to coerce and compel human beings who were born free is not only wicked in itself but also destructive of  potential human progress. We all should believe in the immense creative force of a free human person, and we should all fear the damaging potential of one frustrated in the exercise of personal freedom. As I say that I think of those in this place today whose freedom was taken from them and who none the less found the strength and nobility to surmount that assault upon their characters, and I salute them: and I believe they will agree when I say that personal freedom must always be a primary aim of government.

If the liberty of the people is a great good, then it is necessary to do all that can be done to limit and constrain the power of governments to interfere with that liberty. We need always to remember that rights reside in the people. The people lend certain of these rights to government for it to exercise in the interests of good administration: but government can never validly possess them, only steal them if it is unjust and authoritarian. One of the great tasks Codesa must fulfil is to produce a constitution which prevents abuse of power by government.

In this connection I wish to refer to the cataclysmic events that have taken place in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union during these last years. I spoke this week to a woman of sophistication - not a South African - who had recently visited Saint Petersburg, and moved among private people. She spoke of two things: the very high quality of the people, well-educated and intellectually capable; and the bitter resentment they feel against all politicians. All the delegates to this Convention are political leaders, and I imagine that the vast majority hope to continue as leaders in the future: I do not wish to believe that there is one of us who so despises the people that he or she does not care if they are full of such resentment. Millions of South Africans have experienced the bitterness of oppression. Let us never let that recur - nor let us ever do to our people what those Russian politicians did to theirs.

The rage among the Russian people would certainly seem to be based on the denial to them of normal political rights: but to at least the same extent it is founded in economic deprivation - a system that has failed. Now for many people - perhaps particularly for Liberal Democrats like ourselves - there is something attractive about the proposition that well-educated and able people can find the way to live their lives satisfactorily regardless of who governs. But the recent evidence denies this: it shows that the political system followed is actually a major determinant of the quality of life. It matters. Unless we wish to be hated by generations to come, we must stay far away from all authoritarianism, either in its South African version or in the form of the system imposed in the former Soviet Union.

There can be no doubting the fact that the gap in economic standards between the elite few and the poverty-stricken masses in our country is intolerably wide, or that its rapid narrowing must be a tip-top government priority. But we may not run away from the equally indubitable fact that the wealth.needed to close that gap is at present non-existent: it has to be created. Economic recovery and rapid growth therefore become a top priority also. And here also the world gives us lessons and demonstrations. Governments cannot and do not create wealth: they only obtain it with the consent of the people, and then spend it (which, heaven knows, is a most important duty). Wealth is created by free human beings, applying their talents and strengths in the ceaseless and natural struggle for self-improvement, trading in free markets.

This does not deny an economic role for government, but it must always be a supportive one.

So it must be in South Africa: the creation of wealth is the responsibility of the people; its expenditure is that of government. And the chief and highest spending priority must be the social progress of the people - Education, Health and Housing.

The new government of South Africa will have, above all, two tasks: to restore law and order, and to establish sustained, rapid economic growth. To achieve these two, we shall have to harness all the creative talent of a wide section of our people.

Those who have come to Codesa to pursue party political aims without regard to the great national interest will be cursed by generations to come. Those who have come prepared to subordinate narrow interests to the general good will have a place the among heroes.