Address by Advocate Johnny de Lange, MP, Deputy Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development, on the occasion of the Nelson Mandela Lecture, The Hague, Netherlands

Programme director;
Honourable Minister of Justice, Mr Hirsch Ballin
Honourable Deputy Minister, Ms N Albayrak
Honourable former Mayor of The Hague, Mr Dietmann
Chairperson of the Stichting Standbeeld Nelson Mandela, Ms Marieke Bolle
Ambassador, Her Excellency, Hlengiwe Mkhize
Excellencies, members of the diplomatic corps
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Thank you for the warm and gracious welcome of myself and my delegation, Excellencies by this historic and beautiful city, which is not only the capital of the Netherlands, but also the legal capital of the world and the advocate of world peace and justice. Today, exactly 18 years after the release of Mandela from Robben Island, South Africa thanks the Stichting Standbeeld Nelson Mandela for this magnanimous and gracious honour bestowed on one of the great sons of Africa, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela with the launch of this prestigious series of lectures.

Allow me at the outset, to profusely apologise for the absence of our Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Ms Brigitte Mabandla, MP, who due to her participation in our President's State of the Nation address debate, tomorrow, could not deliver this prestigious lecture. This affords me the great honour and privilege to deliver this lecture celebrating the person and achievements of former President Nelson Mandela, who for most is a great world leader, even an icon, imbued with values and ideals of substantive equality and justice, unqualified respect for the human dignity of each person, genuine reconciliation and nation building and the maximum attainment of human rights and freedom for all.

The dictionary meaning of an icon is a person regarded as a representative symbol or as worthy of veneration. In my view Nelson Mandela is such an icon, and then some. Obviously then, having been asked to stand in at short notice, I am woefully inadequate to address the essence and achievements of such a great and revered person. To make this task even more daunting, ask yourself how does a mere mortal like me or anyone of us for that matter, capture the essence of this extraordinary man, an icon, who is regarded by most of the world as a man larger than life itself?

Introduction

Ladies and gentlemen,
When starting this speech, my first thought was how would Madiba want me to approach this daunting if not impossible task? Mr Mandela recently said: "Whatever my wishes might be, I cannot bind future generations to remember me in the particular way I would like." He then continued: "But, I would like to be remembered as part of a team, and I would like my contribution to be assessed as somebody who carried out decisions taken by that collective" This vehement antipathy he has towards what some call the "cult of the personality or individual" is a theme that runs strongly as an unbroken thread throughout his life. In fact, exactly 18 years ago, on 11 February 1990, Madiba, after spending 27 years incarcerated on Robben Island, in his first public address, on the Parade in Cape Town, made this a central theme of his address: "The need to unite the people of our country is as important a task now as it always has been. No individual leader is able to take on this enormous task on his own. It is our task as leaders to place our views before our organisation and to allow the democratic structures to decide. On the question of democratic practice, I feel duty bound to make the point that a leader of the movement is a person who has been democratically elected at a national conference. This is a principle which must be upheld without any exceptions."

This insistence by Madiba that he wants to be remembered as part of a collective and not as an extraordinary individual and leader is clearly part of his Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid (DNA) and deeply ingrained in his psyche and personality. Madiba regards himself as foremost a "loyal and obedient servant" of the ANC, which he headed before becoming South Africa's first democratically elected president, in May 1994. Despite his reluctance to be singled out as an individual leader and to brook no discussion of his personal qualities, there is consensus in South Africa that without Madiba's personal commitment to reconciliation, his moral authority, his huge intellect, his limitless pool of wisdom, his unshakeable integrity and intense compassion, the country's transition to democracy might not have happened or at the very least not gone as smoothly as it has.

This injunction from the great man to be seen and treated as part of the collective, I intend honouring, by mainly focusing on his role as an extraordinary leader and personality within his beloved ANC and the liberation struggle more broadly, trying to avoid discussion of his many and varied, extraordinary individual personality traits.

Ladies and gentlemen,
I am sure that it is trite that the essence of Madiba and the struggle he was involved in is possibly best encapsulated in the simplistic eloquence of this most well known phrase from his speech in the dock of an apartheid court in the early 1960s: "During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and achieve. But, if needs be it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

This statement encapsulates many of the most lofty and immutable values and principles of our struggle in a simple and powerful few sentences in a manner which captured the hearts, minds and soul of every oppressed and democratic person in our land and became the cornerstone of the dreams and aspirations of all those who fought to end the yoke of apartheid. It speaks to all that is good and noble: the struggle for freedom; the sovereignty of the African people; the principle of no racialism; the absolute opposition to dominance and repression from whichever quarter; reconciliation and nation building; the human dignity of each person; and equality, human rights and justice for all.

Ladies and gentlemen,
Many often ask why Madiba seems so obviously devoid of bitterness, hatred or anger against his persecutors and so singularly lacking in seeking revenge or vengeance. In fact, many around the world have admired Madiba for his seemingly wonderful forgiving nature free from bitterness and anger. When asked in an interview with 'Time' magazine, published on 14 June 1993, "Many have commented about your lack of bitterness. How could you put the past behind you?" Madiba replied: "I'm not unique. Others have had every reason to be more bitter than I. There are countless people who went to jail and aren't bitter at all, because they can see that their sacrifices were not in vain , and the ideas for which we lived and sacrificed are about to come to fruition. And that removes bitterness from their hearts." This is vintage Madiba. The Madiba that we have come to know, love and cherish, forever!

Perhaps the essence of this aspect of Madiba's personality, in the way in which he embraced his erstwhile persecutors, is most aptly captured by Cuban President, Fidel Castro, who observed that Madiba will go down in the annals of history because he was "able to draw from his soul all the poison accumulated by such an unjust punishment. He will be remembered for his generosity and for his wisdom at the time of an already uncontainable victory, when he knew how to lead so brilliantly his self sacrificing and heroic people, aware that the new South Africa would never be built on foundations of hatred and revenge."
In my view this "generosity of spirit" towards his persecutors is not just a nice personality trait of Madiba, but, as I will demonstrate below, is a major and central part of the essence of who he and the liberation struggle he is part of and which he lead is and was.

Arguably the most endearing and remembered legacy of Madiba and the ANC, at least in the hearts and minds of ordinary people, is the absolute insistence and nonnegotiable stance taken in favour of the principles of reconciliation, reconstruction and development, with the concomitant call for national unity and nation building, as building blocks of the new South Africa. In fact, this stance has endeared Madiba to most South Africans, as "Mr Reconciliation". With the adoption of our new Constitution, on 8 May 1996, Madiba captured the centrality of these principles of our nation building project, with poetic majesty: "Now it is universally acknowledged that unity and reconciliation are written in the hearts of millions of South Africans. They are an indelible principle of our founding pledge. They are the glowing fire of our New Patriotism. They shall remain the condition for reconstruction and development, in as much as reconstruction and development will depend on unity and reconciliation. In tribute to them, we stand today before our people and humanity to present this our new basic law of the land, whose founding principles of human dignity, non-racialism and non-sexism, and whose commitment to universal adult suffrage, regular elections and multiparty democracy are immutable. This is our national soul, our compact with one another as citizens, underpinned by our highest aspirations and our deepest apprehensions. Our pledge is: Never and never again shall the laws of our land rend our people apart or legalise their oppression and repression. Together, we shall march, hand in hand, to a brighter future."

Against the above brief background of a few of the aspects of the essence of Madiba, as promised, I now turn to look at the role that the ANC, with leaders like Madiba and later President Thabo Mbeki at the helm, have played, as a collective, to move us as a nation from the brink of a racial conflagration to a democracy, in a developing country, trying to ameliorate the devastating legacy of our apartheid past.

Approaches, policies, strategies or mechanisms for dealing with our legacy of apartheid past

Ladies and gentlemen,
South Africa entered the new millennium having achieved her formal political liberation. The struggles of her people, supported by the international community, brought to an end the abhorrent system of apartheid colonialism and ushered in the possibility of a new era of democracy, peace and justice. The foundation had been laid for our society to develop into a truly united, non racial, non sexist, democratic and prosperous nation. The understandable euphoria that this development occasioned reflected the sense of achievement of a people that had endured centuries of bondage. It also marked an appreciation by both black and white South Africans that they share a common destiny, and that none would benefit from mutually debilitating conflict.

This relatively smooth and peaceful transition of government in 1994 was one of the most outstanding achievements of liberation struggles in the last century. It was largely made possible and re-enforced by the deliberate and pivotal policy of reconciliation, reconstruction and development, which are the three major pillars underpinning our nation building project, as adopted by the ANC, upon strong insistence from Madiba. Undoubtedly, this approach, as I try to explain herein, has helped to narrow the space for those forces which might have had plans to subvert the transition by violent and other means.

Ladies and gentlemen,
Madiba sought to build the newly liberated South Africa on the foundations of an all-inclusive social transformation process. The kernel of the South African social transformation or nation building project during the transition was built around policies and strategies involving a triad of essential elements, namely reconciliation, reconstruction and development. The main content of the ANC's nation building project, under the leadership of Madiba and later President Mbeki, is the transformation of the political, economic, social, ideological, moral and all other spheres and aspects of the apartheid dispensation, by: the building of a single South African nation which acknowledges the diversity of its people; a new and progressive patriotism; the healing of the wounds of a shameful past; the deracialisation of society; the liberation of Black people from political and economic bondage; the progressive eradication of gender inequalities and women's oppression in particular; uplifting the quality of life of all South Africans through the progressive sustained eradication of poverty and the attainment of the basic needs of the majority; creating and maintaining a culture of democracy and human rights; and promoting and entrenching the rule of law and constitutionalism.

Arising from this approach: the attainment of the twin goals of socioeconomic justice or economic reconstruction and the restoration of the moral order of our country or moral reconstruction have crystallised as the two main strategies to be vigorously pursued to successfully attain social justice as a means of dealing with South Africa's legacy of her apartheid past. I mention but a few of the specific approaches, policies, strategies or mechanisms embarked on to address these twin goals, contributing to the healing process of our nation and ultimately to the building of a nation. I deal with these under three broad headings.

Socioeconomic justice

The first broad area is the attainment of socioeconomic justice: to address the socioeconomic problems of the past and in pursuit of the attainment of socio-economic justice, we have introduced various mechanisms to do so. I mention but five such mechanisms: Firstly, the adoption of sound and broadly acceptable macroeconomic policies and microeconomic strategies based on the pursuit of growth and development; Secondly, there are the various budgets passed to date which are showing a sharply increasing move away from apartheid patterns of spending, as well as the promise of rapidly expanding future expenditure on socioeconomic programmes and backlogs; Thirdly, there is the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), which has been referred to by many commentators as one of the most comprehensive and realisable socioeconomic programmes devised for a developing country; Fourthly, there are a myriad of socioeconomic and affirmative action programmes of each government department; Fifthly, there is the Land Claims Commission and Land Court, to particularly deal with our history of land dispossession and forced removals.

Social justice in legal-politico sphere

The second broad area is the attainment of social justice in the legal politico sphere: - to address the legal politico problems of the past and in the pursuit of the attainment of social justice and reconciliation, in general terms, three factors or events stand out which merit mentioning:

Firstly: There has been the magnanimous and big-hearted manner in which the majority of our people have embraced the government's vision of reconciliation, reconstruction and development. Without this acceptance all our endeavours would come to naught

Secondly: There has been the incredibly reconciliatory, balanced and inclusive statesmanship of former President Mandela and President Mbeki presently, which has and will continue to set the tone and example for our nation-building project during the transition

Thirdly: There is the adoption of the interim Constitution, in 1993, and the formation of the first government ever based on the will of the people, which was a revolutionary break with the past. The Constitution is the legal foundation upon which all legality rests, from which all derive their authority, in South Africa. It provides for a decisive break with Westminster type parliamentary sovereignty, ushering in a constitutional state (Rechtstaat) where the Constitution is supreme and with a commitment to respect of human rights and the rule of law.

It has been said by many that the Constitution is in fact a peace pact reached between the minority, apartheid forces and the disenfranchised and marginalised majority led by the ANC, in a situation where neither had been defeated, yet neither had been victor. As it is a peace pact it is obviously an instrument of political compromise and it reflects such compromise. As a peace pact it also in the broader and more specific senses of the word deals with the legacy of our apartheid past. I have in mind, in general, our whole detailed progressive Bill of Rights which contains a rich, integrated and holistic matrix of justiciable first, second and third generation rights, and, in particular, I mention but three clauses, which provide for mechanisms to address certain aspects of our past, and chart a legal framework into the future. Firstly, the clause dealing with land restitution; secondly, the clause which forms part of our equality clause; and, thirdly, the adoption of an unprecedented and unique epilogue at the end, with the heading of "National Unity and Reconciliation".

The adoption of this epilogue on 5 December 1993 was unique, historic and dramatic. It was the last clause to be finalised and adopted and marked a breakthrough to the vexed question of amnesty. This is the only clause that deals specifically with the pathology of our past. It gives constitutional recognition to the primacy of reconciliation between our people and the reconstruction of society to address the legacy of the past and to the pursuit of national unity. It prescribes the essential principles which should form the basis upon which we deal with the legacy of the past: a need for understanding instead of vengeance, a need for reparation instead of retaliation, a need for Ubuntu or humanity instead of victimisation.

It is for these reasons that I conclude that the epilogue read with the preamble and other provisions mentioned in the final Constitution entrenches the principles of reconciliation, reconstruction, development and social justice as constitutional building blocks or cornerstones of the new South Africa. A study of Constitutions throughout the world would show that this South African approach is unique in constitutional jurisprudence. It is also worth mentioning that our Constitution, which was crafted with huge public participation and is loved and revered by all South Africans, on a proper analysis reflects all the values that are great, noble and sacred of to our liberation struggle and which is the essence or inner core of leaders like Madiba and President Mbeki.

Moral reconstruction: The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)

Ladies and gentlemen,
The third broad area is the attainment of moral reconstruction in our country: - there is and was a compelling need for the moral reconstruction of the country, not least of all due to the abdication of the rule of law and the violation of human rights under apartheid. One of the ways to start the healing process in South Africa was the need for an honest assessment and diagnoses of the sickness within our society, in an attempt to give people, both perpetrators and victims, an opportunity to face the past and its consequences and to start afresh.

After 1994, as we started moving from the old to the new dispensation, it was obvious that a dramatic qualitative change in the South African reality had come about, as the Constitution enjoins us: to break with the past, to heal the wounds from the past, to forgive but not to forget and to address the legacy of the past through reconciliation, reconstruction, development and social justice. At the commencement of this our new dawn, Madiba and the ANC were immediately faced with the awesome responsibility to give meaning to this commitment of a genuine reconciliation and reconstruction process in pursuit of national unity.

Ladies and gentlemen,
The question starkly facing Madiba, the ANC and South Africa at the time of his release and of South Africa's transition was whether we were going to go down the road of (retributive) justice or the road of reconciliation to address the legacy of our past? These options at the time were presented as supported by international experience in transitions as being mutually exclusive.

Neither of these approaches was compatible with the manner in which our transition had unfolded: neither with the letter and spirit of what had gone before in our negotiation process under the leadership of Madiba. Inspired by Madiba's generosity of spirit, and the manner in which he reached out to his persecutors, we had to find a formula rooted in the need to achieve that essential balance of dealing with our past and a way forward into the future that was in the best interests of the country as a whole.

A win-win situation was therefore called for. To secure any kind of future, we had to subvert narrow party political, sectarian or even personal interests and preferences to a higher and nobler goal: for our divided country as a whole to emerge from our shameful past as the winner. The road to the promotion of reconciliation and the pursuit of national unity would have to tread a delicate balance along the precarious precipice between reconciliation and retributive justice. The challenge was how to achieve both justice and reconciliation, not justice or reconciliation.

In our country, therefore, reconciliation is pivotal to the process of bringing justice to all our people. Not justice in its narrowest sense; the kind of justice that demands trial and punishment. Not justice in the sense of those who committed atrocious deeds being stripped of their positions, employment or status, or having to make reparations of some kind to victims. There had to be justice, but justice in its broadest sense. A collective justice; a social justice; a restorative justice that seeks to address the collective to deliver to the collective that is aimed at nation building and reconciliation. A justice that focuses on the future rather than the past; on understanding rather than vengeance; on reparation rather than retaliation; on Ubuntu (a principle about compassion for fellow human beings, as opposed to individualism) rather than victimisation. To do this we had to avoid the constraints of retributive justice. We had to broaden our perception of justice beyond punishment.

We had to look at the fate of victims and the entire political and social framework in which the violations took place. We had to balance justice and reconciliation. The secret to unlocking this South African model lies, to a large measure, in the approach adopted with the handling of the amnesty issue. The answer will ultimately be found in accommodating the requirement for amnesty, in a delicate and sensitive manner within a truth commission with a victim centred approach. Individual victims and our society as a whole could not continue to carry the burden of unspeakable atrocities shrouded in secrecy and obfuscation, alone without acknowledgement and knowledge.

We had to provide for an individualised amnesty process that would sufficiently acknowledge and respect the victim. It had to be a balanced amnesty process which retained, at least, a minimum threshold of: accountability of past violators; acknowledgement of the victims; and public sanction and opprobrium. Between the requirement for amnesty and the need to find a victim centred approach, lay the balance ultimately. To put it bluntly, we could never build a nation and promote national unity and reconciliation in our county, without some minimum form of acknowledgement from perpetrators. The result was, in 1995, that the South African Parliament, through a unique, democratically verifiable process after a prolonged, inclusive, broad, consultative process established the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), by passing the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act.

This marked one of the historic events during the transition which facilitated the "miracle." Although the establishment of truth commissions had become a widely used tool or mechanism in the recent past by countries involved in a transition from dictatorship moving towards democracy, our TRC marked a unique moment in world history, because it was the first time that a nation had created a truth commission through a democratic, public, participatory process, by way of an Act of Parliament. The TRC, also in many other respects, featured unique and historic characteristics which - individually, collectively or contextually - had never been utilised in the context of a truth commission. Suffice to say for now that our approach was for the first time ever to contextualise an (individualised) amnesty process, within the framework and context of a truth commission, in such a manner as to focus in a balanced and reconciliatory manner on the restoration of the dignity, honour and integrity of the victims, whilst at the same time giving effect to the constitutional provision of providing for an amnesty process.

Although, the final formula arrived at was uniquely South African; it was the product of an extensive examination and application of solutions and failures of other experiences to our peculiar transition. The final formula, at best, has created a new and unique model which has charted a possible middle road between the reconciliation versus justice model dichotomy, or, at least, a unique variant of either model. For want of a better phrase: a restorative justice model or a social justice model; being an innovative hybrid of all those essential elements of both the reconciliation and justice models which were found to be applicable to our peculiar set of circumstances. In the process, South Africa has developed a new model for dealing with state criminality: she has chosen a path between the extremes of compulsory, full-scale prosecutions and general amnesty.

In the process we have done something quite unique. As the former Transport Minister, Mac Maharaj eloquently puts it: "We have taken the concept of justice in its broadest sense and found a formulation that meets the peculiar and specific requirements of our country, a formulation that contains a strong element of restorative justice, while limiting retribution to public exposure and shame to be faced by the perpetrators, whose names and deeds are becoming known." In this sense, restorative justice is essentially a forward looking, inclusive, healthy, life giving process, the oxygen that lubricates the wheels of life. It allows for the building of reconciliation through the joint process of satisfying the interim Constitution by giving amnesty, where appropriate and after full disclosure, whilst allowing the people who have carried the terrible burden of grief, suffering and of lack of knowledge, to come forward and speak to the nation.

As the then Deputy President of the Constitutional Court, the late Justice Mohamed, so beautifully captured this despair and hope, this pain and release: "The Act seeks to address this massive problem by encouraging these survivors and the dependants of the tortured and the wounded, the maimed and the dead, to unburden their grief publicly, to receive the collective recognition of a new nation that they were wronged, and crucially, to help them to discover what did in truth happen to their loved ones, where and under what circumstances it did happen, and who was responsible. With (the amnesty) incentive, what might unfold are objectives fundamental to the ethos of a new constitutional order."

Ultimately, through the TRC process twin goals are met, the flipside of the same coin: providing victims with a soft place to deal with hard issues; providing perpetrators with a hard place to receive softer results. For the perpetrator, it may be "softer" justice, but they would remain between a rock and a hard place with the need for full public acknowledgement. In the process, justice is not only being done. It is seen to be done! It is restorative justice in the essence, but it also contains essential elements of retributive justice in that the truth is told, lies are being exposed and the perpetrators are becoming known.

It may not be perfect justice; justice does not exist in its perfect state and compromises have to be made for the greater collective good or to avoid even greater wrongs. In summary, the basic concept of "the South African way" as symbolised by Madiba, is captured eloquently in the words of Prof. Werle: "Inner unity requires reconciliation and this in turn requires the public recognition of the historical truth. Those who are meant to forgive must know what they are forgiving. It is therefore insufficient to establish the historical truth in merely an abstract manner. Instead, the violence of the past and its causes must be named, the suffering of the victims concretely established. Truth has precedence over punishment, but also over amnesty. Acknowledgement legitimises amnesty, silence excludes it. Punishment can, to a certain extent, be negotiated. The truth cannot. This is South Africa's message to societies in transition. There is no reconciliation without the truth."

Although it is undoubtedly so that our TRC will always proudly stand out as a shining beacon of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity, we must continuously strive to maintain a balanced perspective in respect of the role and the value of the TRC in addressing the legacy of the past, especially in achieving or promoting reconciliation. In the context of what has gone before, it cannot be emphasised strongly enough that the TRC was but one mechanism we pursued in respect of our deliberate policy of reconciliation, reconstruction and development, to enable us to address but one moral aspect of the legacy of our past, namely the various forms of mainly physical violence we unleashed against each other. It was never meant to address all the wrongs caused by our Apartheid legacy, which are varied, complex and multi facetted, as its focused and limited mandate bears witness to.

It is important to stress that reconciliation; reconstruction and development are a process, not a single event or even a series of events. The TRC's importance is that it came relatively close to the beginning of the process. It was the first time that a South African government, ironically the democratic one, through the creation of the TRC acknowledged that terrible wrongs had been perpetrated upon her people, mainly by the old government, and provided them with a state instituted and sponsored mechanism, independently managed and controlled by civil society. It is in this context that the attainment of the twin goals of socioeconomic justice and the restoration of the moral order of our country to deal with our apartheid legacy has been referred to by Dr Alex Boraine, as our "unfinished business:" the flipside of the same coin. Whilst the focus of the TRC was on seeking the truth in the search of restoring the moral order and the pursuit of reconciliation and national unity, serious delays in the improvement of the quality of life of South Africans will bring into disrepute any attempts at reconciliation.

[If we do not substantially deliver on socioeconomic justice, then no matter how reconciliatory we are or whether we know the complete truth about our past or not, the whole South African nation-building project could perhaps be put in jeopardy. Revealing the complete truth of our shameful past, without attaining socioeconomic justice, or, conversely, attaining socioeconomic justice without revealing the complete truth: either scenario spells failure, possible disaster and is unacceptable; the anathema of attaining social transformation]. Simply put, reconciliation cannot be promoted at the expense of the reconstruction and development, with the converse being equally true.

As we continue building our nation, we may well heed Andreas Sajo, when he opines: "There is no perfect condition for justice to take place, but transition, in particular, produces a special set of conditions for imperfect justice." However, we need to also keep reminding ourselves that 14 years ago, South Africa began a journey to deal with the pathology of her past, with the possibility of reconciliation without justice; or with the possibility of justice without reconciliation, she ended with reconciliation and justice.

Conclusion
In conclusion, we as South Africans salute the friendship between the people of South Africa and of the Netherlands. It is through the unwavering solidarity of the antiapartheid movement the world over that South Africa is a democracy today. We South Africans are mindful of the fact that we have benefited immensely from the friendship and solidarity of the Netherlands. This should be the basis for us to continue to work for peace and friendship amongst the people of the world and for the elimination of poverty and strife, and an improved quality of life for all in the world. May I, then, on behalf of the South African government and the people of South Africa, thank the people and government of the Netherlands and all the activists who played an important role in our struggle against oppression and injustice. As we continue to rebuild our beautiful country, we urge you, old and young, to continue to be passionate about developments in South Africa and to participate in our drive to bring about a better life for all our people.

Let me leave you finally and aptly with the words of former President Mandela when he signed the Constitution, on 10 December 1996, in Sharpeville, when he said: "Let us now, drawing strength from the unity which we have forged, together grasp the opportunities and realise the vision enshrined in this Constitution. Let us give practical recognition to the injustices of the past, by building a future based on equality and social justice. Let us nurture our national unity by recognising, with respect and joy, the languages, cultures and religions of South Africa in all their diversity. Let tolerance for one another's views create the peaceful conditions which give space for the best in all of us to find expression and to flourish. Above all, let us work together in striving to banish homelessness, illiteracy, hunger and disease."

Thank you ever so much for your kind invitation and attention.