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Date
: 16/12/2006
Source: The Presidency
Title: Mbeki: Reconciliation Day Isikhumbuto Freedom Park
handover
Address of the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, on the
occasion of the ceremony to hand over to the nation, Isikhumbuto:
Freedom Park, Salvokop, Tshwane
Programme Director, Vuyo Mbuli,
Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan,
other Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Chairperson of the Freedom Park Trust Board, Gertrude Shope,
Chief Executive Office of the Freedom Park Trust, Mongane Wally
Serote,
Leaders of the organs of state,
Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Gwen Ramokgopa,
Members of the Freedom Park Board of Trustees and Staff,
Our distinguished guests,
Dr May Nagu, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of the
Republic of Tanzania, and Mr Joao Alvez-Monteiro, Deputy Minister
of justice of the Republic of Angola,
Your Excellencies, Ambassadors, High Commissioners and Members of
the Diplomatic Corps,
Distinguished guests,
Comrades,
Ladies and gentlemen'
Fellow South Africans,
Once more, I am deeply honoured to address you on the occasion of
our National Day of Reconciliation, and the handing over to the
nation of the structures created as part of the Intermediary Phase
of the Freedom Park.
It is fitting that we have again gathered at Salvokop, on the
national holiday of the Day of Reconciliation, to display to the
public the outstanding work-in-progress of the Freedom Park, the
fulcrum of our vision to heal and reconcile our nation as we work
together to redefine a common and shared identity based on the
ideals of freedom, equality and justice.
We undertake our annual pilgrimage to this shrine of the people
that tells us of where we come from, why we are where we are today,
and how we will continue to strive for a South Africa that truly
represents the vision for which many of our heroes and heroines
sacrificed their lives, because we recognise the fact that it would
be impossible to build a non-racial and non-sexist nation if we
were to become indifferent to our past.
We are indeed very happy that the Intermediary Phase of the Park is
progressing well with the completion of Isikhumbuto. As the Freedom
Park Trust observes, Isikhumbuto represents "a mirror image of the
nation's historical consciousness." As the Trust states:
"In order to celebrate and commemorate, we have to remember. In
order to remember, we have to reflect and contemplate. In order to
reflect and contemplate, we need peace and tranquillity. Designed
around our desire to celebrate and commemorate, Sikhumbuto
integrates five features where the nation can rejoice and honour
the lives of those who contributed to the struggle for humanity and
freedom."
Freedom Park is a place of memory, a place that allows us to
remember without rancour, and quietly to celebrate the noble
achievements of the human spirit. It is an island of peace that
invites us to reflect and contemplate, allowing us to descend this
hill refreshed, ready further to contribute to a future whose
humanism is the very core of the abiding prayer of all South
Africans and Africans.
Freedom Park will be a place of hope in which will be embedded the
rich history of our country and all humanity. It will represent
both a transformed landscape and historical memory intertwined. It
will be a place which will hold our memories in incubation,
allowing them to nurture a future free of bitterness, free of
hatred, free of stereotypes, free of racism, and free of the
destructive fury of war.
Today, we honour, on the walls of Sikhumbuto, South Africans,
including Charlotte Maxeke, Lilian Ngoyi and Oliver Tambo, as well
as Mahatma Gandhi, whose vision and practice of Satyagraha,
launched in our country a century ago, we saluted earlier this
year, together with the contributions of many other heroes and
heroines, including those of the Bambata Rebellion, the Women's
March, and the Soweto Uprising, whose sacrifices made it possible
for us today to enjoy freedom and democracy.
And beyond our own borders, on our mother continent, we salute and
remember among others, Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, Angola's Agostinho
Neto, Tanzania's Julius Nyerere and further afield, the outstanding
African-Americans scholar and activist for the liberation of
Africans everywhere, Dr W E B du Bois, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the
hero of the Cuban revolution and Toussaint Louverture who led the
heroic revolutionary struggle of African slaves that resulted in
the birth of the first Black Republic in Haiti, in 1804.
These extraordinary human beings are among the many acclaimed
leaders, as well as the unsung heroes and heroines to whom we owe
our gratitude for the gift of freedom - freedom to eradicate the
humiliation and anguish of being human cargo treated disdainfully
as commodities on the iniquitous global stock exchange of times
past, as slaves on plantations or in reservoirs of labour or as the
battered footballs of the 20th century Cold War.
Indeed, Freedom Park is not an epitaph. It is a place that
resonates with the joy of a celebration of freedom and equality for
all people, and a spirit that speaks of a future of ever-growing
human fulfilment.
As we gather here on Salvokop to celebrate the development of the
Sikhumbuto site and its handover to the nation, we must also remind
ourselves of our journey forward, from the wars and conflicts of
repression towards the ascension of democracy and the concomitant
duty to ensure development, a better life for all our people, and
the restoration of the dignity of all our people.
We have come here today to restate our common resolve to continue
along the journey towards a truly non-racial and non-sexist future;
we have come here, once again, to commit ourselves to our freely
chosen path of reconciliation, of healing the wounds of the past
and drawing strength from our diversity.
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