MEDIA RELEASE

Fr Smangaliso Mkhatshwa's, Candidate Mayor for Tshwane, speech on the Occasion of the weekly Military Flag hoisting parade on Church Square on 15 November 2000

It is a pleasure to be part of the delightful spectacle that every-one here today has helped to provide.  Keep up the good work. Your efforts have already made a difference.

It is gratifying to see so many people actively committed to making the inner city a better and more interesting place.  Every active investor in the inner city is appreciated, but more important is the fact that people have not only committed themselves and their investments, but are also committed, beyond personal investments, to contribute to making Pretoria a better place.  Those who advise and criticise are in abundance, but those who actually do something, make a difference.

Looking at church square, filled with people from all walks of life and all races and communities, I have to address a statement that one commonly encounters, particularly in the white community, that says: " Nobody visits the city centre. These days, only blacks go there." Ons hoor baie keer:  Die middestad is leeg , dit is net vol swartes." 

On the surface this is nothing more than a slightly amusing contradiction, a reflection of the every day, harmless "Madam and Eve" situation.  I am however, on a deeper level really concerned that it reflects a serious alienation that an important part of our nation, of our people, the white community, is experiencing.  I was never part of a struggle to drive anybody away from any place in their own country.  Even when black people could only walk about this square if they had a pass, the leaders of the struggle, in the Freedom Charter of 1954 already, in the very first words of that document that today is the foundation of our Constitution, stated that South Africa belongs to all who live in it.  It has been said before, but needs to be repeated here: THE STRUGGLE WAS TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM, NOT to CHANGE THE VICTIMS. 

The minorities, the white community, have the power in themselves, and only they have it, to make sure that they are not victims.  You need not, and should not feel alienated in your own birthplace.  Nobody wants to tax you out of your homes. Nobody wants you to suffer.  Nobody wants you to be the victim of crime. As an essential and integral part of our society, this government wishes you, and wants for you, nothing but the best.  The well being of our whole

nation is dependant on the well being of all its components.  That is true for all of us.

When we ask you to be part of the liberation of this country, we are not asking you to choose sides for black people and to choose sides against your own communities.  Those white councillors who have joined the ANC have not abandoned their communities.  Hulle het nie opgehou om vir hulle Afrikaanse taal lief te wees en Afrikaans te praat nie.  Hulle dien hulle gemeenskappe steeds deur 'n bree-er visie.  They have realised, that in a country like ours, where the majority is not at odds with minorities, every one's interest is best served by making a positive, committed, contribution to the whole.

I want to implore you to do what even the far right has abandoned:

RETAKE CHURCH SQUARE.  RETAKE PRETORIA. TAKE TSHWANE, TAKE ALL OF THIS COUNTRY AS YOUR OWN.  Not as part of any doctrine of exclusivity.  Not to the detriment of anybody else, not even as part of the promise of the freedom charter, but as your inalienable right that was confirmed as a  pact of all the people when they chose to adopt the constitution.

Let us make Pretoria, Tswhane, a place of unity, a coming together.

Let us make our home a better place for all, together.

Picture and CV of Father Mkhatshwa is available at 

http://www.anc.org.za/elections/local00/biogs/smkhatshwa.html

Issued by

ANC PRETORIA REGION

Contact            :            Andries Nel: 082 576 6672