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27 June 2008

Speech delivered during a Parliamentary Session by Deputy Minister Radhakrishna L Padayachie (Roy) on the occasion to mark former President Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday

This joint session of parliament goes into recess by celebrating the birth, life, era, and lifetime contribution of one of South Africa's and Africa's greatest sons and leaders. In his biography Long Walk to Freedom, the first president of a non-racial and non-sexist South Africa, comrade Nelson Mandela said the following:

"I always knew that someday I would once again feel the grass under my feet and walk in the sunshine as a free man."

It is this moral lesson which he imparts to us. It speaks to us and especially the youth that no matter what the diversity one faces in life whether as an individual, nation or country……

"We must be able to visualise a better future for ourselves as both country and nation."

As we mark Youth Parliament Week, it is crucial that we as well as our youth focus as a nation and country on the leadership of the founding mothers and fathers of our democratic country.

We, and especially our youth today, need a role model like that of Madiba to show us the way as we continue to forge a better future for all us who have made South Africa our home.

Now more than ever before we, and the youth in particular, must draw on the aspirations, inspiration and ethos (philosophy) of our former president who said in his book:

"The victory of democracy in South Africa is the common achievement of all humanity."

It is this legacy which he and the rest of the founding mothers and fathers of our democracy have left for us that we must revisit, reclaim and take inspiration from.

Madiba taught us to steer away from the narrow nationalism which would fracture our common humanity and turn African against African, tribe against tribe, race against race, and one nationality forged by borders against another different nationality.

After 27 years of imprisonment, Madiba turned to love instead of hatred against his former incarcerators. It is his sense of humanity; humaneness and respect for diversity that need to inform, underpin and underline our political outlook today.

Notwithstanding his 27 years of imprisonment his character throughout his life exudes humanism and a total absence of rancour and bitterness founded on the conviction that "all men, even the most seemingly cold blooded has a core of decency and if there hearts are touched they are capable of changing."

Madiba further said that "prison itself is a tremendous education in the need for patience and perseverance. It is above all a test of one's commitment."

His is a dignity rooted in a profound sense of self, based not on one's contempt for one's enemy but on an acknowledgement of a shared humanity. A self worth acknowledged with both pride and humility and which from an early age prompted him to deal with others on an equal footing and what he himself has called "a stubborn sense of fairness." An attitude which implies that one should never humiliate an opponent or gloat on the fall or death of an adversary. It is ultimately a profound acknowledgement that a common humanity also means a shared mortality.

Commenting on this character of Madiba, Archbishop Desmond Tutu has this to say: "The years he spent in jail gave him a new depth, help him to be more understanding of the foibles of others, to be more generous, more tolerant and more magnanimous and gave him an unassailable credibility and integrity."

Many years later in his biography, The Long Walk to Freedom, he simply states that in the treason trial of 1962: "I was simply the symbol of justice in the court of the oppressor, a representative of the great ideas of freedom, fairness and democracy in a society who dishonoured those virtues. This illustrates the extent of his responsibility rather than the measure of his importance.

In the actions that marked and shaped Madiba's life principle was always important but never ideology. In his book, the Long Walk to Freedom he constantly asserts that his advocacy of non-violence in the early years of the struggle, before state violence imposed the recourse to violence in response, was never an ideological decision but a purely strategic measure. Realistic assessments of options, extensive debate with colleagues in order to arrive at consensus and informed pragmatic decisions defined his approach to politics.

There are different sites of political struggle today in our country where we, and our youth, could forge the organisational and personal discipline required to shape the future of our country. As we meet here today to celebrate his birthday and pay tribute to him, there is a need for us to revisit and remind ourselves of the legacy of Madiba and how much of an asset this could and should be to us.

If there is a brand that needs to be adopted, especially by our youth today, it is the Madiba brand. This brand is genuinely made in South Africa. It is proudly South African. Of all the resources in our country, including all the mineral resources, the human resource is our most valuable asset. Because it is only through the human resource that value can be added to our other natural resources.

Mahatma Gandhi said: "Let us be the change that we seek in the world."

Madiba has given us the gift that keeps on giving which is his profound sense of humanity. It would be instructive for me to quote from his inaugural speech delivered in 1994 to remind us who we are as a country and a people bonded together by our common citizenship and neighbourliness.

"We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people. We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans both black and white will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity – a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world."

"I dream of the realisation of the unity of Africa, whereby its leaders combine in their efforts to solve the problems of this continent. I dream of our vast deserts, of our forests, of all our great wildernesses."

On his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Madiba said: "Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it possible for me to be here today. I therefore place the remaining years of my life in your hands."

Words cannot sufficiently and comprehensively convey our sense of appreciation to you for the service that you have rendered and continue to render to us as a country and nation.

You have given us international respect and acclaim as both country and nation. You have raised the flag of South Africa and Africa the world-over. You branded us as amongst the very best in the world and worthy of respect and international recognition.

"He walked free and with him, a nation began the walk to freedom. He became head of state, and it seemed as if patience and justice had created a new politics for the people, one without bigotry or repression. Writing in 1999 about the era of former President Nelson Mandela which at the time was about to be closed, renown South African writer, Andre Brink describes his life as the life of a man who has become a saintly icon for the world.

At the end of the millennium at that time when the world's media were trying to pick out a man of the century, the leader of leaders, the name of Nelson Mandela featured rather prominently alongside that of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Junior. He stands out as an icon in his own right, exceptional and unique.

His life is a symbol not only of the principles and values of the nation but the embodiment of hope for the entire world. He has come to symbolise the triumph of the human spirit against all adversity and the creation of hope for humanity as a whole.

On behalf of the African National Congress (ANC), its leadership and members, I hereby would like to pay tribute to Madiba on his 90th birthday. O father of our founding democracy! We pay tribute to you for the many gifts that you have bequeathed to us as a country and nation. Your contribution to our country and nation continue to be gifts that keep on giving.

We continue to draw inspiration and lessons from your leadership and contribution to our movement and country.

We are indeed thankful to you for the many years of sacrifice, service to our country, people, and the inspiring role model that you continue to be to us as country, community and nation.

(From all of us) Long Live Madiba; Thank you from a grateful nation and country; on your 90th birthday

Issued by: Department of Communications
27 June 2008
Source: Department of Communications (http://www.doc.gov.za)