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Date : 22/09/2004
Source: The Presidency
Title: J Zuma: Heritage Day ceremony of amaMpondomise people


ADDRESS BY DEPUTY PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA TO THE HERITAGE DAY CEREMONY OF THE AMAMPONDOMISE PEOPLE, Mdibanisweni Great Place, Umtata, Eastern Cape, 22 September 2004

Your Majesty King Sigcau,
The Premier of the Eastern Cape Province,
MEC for Arts and Culture and all MECs present,
All traditional leaders present,
Distinguished guests,

Thank you for inviting us to join the amaMpondomise people to celebrate Heritage Day, an important day in the calendar of our country.

This is an important day because it gives us an opportunity to appreciate who we are, what makes our diverse and colourful nation special, and what it is from our culture and tradition that we should celebrate and promote, for the benefit of future generations.

This year we celebrate Living Heritage, which refers to aspects such as cultural traditions, oral history and popular memory, skills and techniques; values, craftsmanship and indigenous knowledge systems.

We all share the responsibility to preserve, protect and promote our culture, and should encourage pride in people's cultures and value systems, without prejudice, to highlight the multi-cultural nature of our country.

As government we see it as our duty to provide an enabling environment for the expression and exhibition of various forms of Living Heritage, of all our people, in a manner that supports our ideals of the non-racial, non-sexist, multilingual and multicultural society.

Our presence here today, to celebrate the heritage of the amaMpondomise people, forms part of this national recognition and celebration.

Most historians refer glowingly to the Pondoland Revolt of 1960, where ordinary aMaMpondo people defiantly refused to be incorporated under the rule of the Bantu Authorities Act, the blueprint for the Homeland system that was to follow. This also forms the subject of the invaluable book by Govan Mbeki, one of the stalwarts of our struggle for freedom.

Many luminaries of the struggle for justice and freedom in South Africa came from this region, including early leaders of Umkhonto weSizwe (MK).

Of particular note is Oliver Reginald Tambo, a freedom fighter, teacher, humanitarian, lawyer and distinguished former president of the ANC.

Cde OR's contribution to the struggle for freedom, democracy and justice in South Africa will inspire volumes of history and documentation for the years to come. Suffice to say he represented the very tradition of humility, vision and leadership grounded in the people of this region.

The history of the amamPondomise people dates back many generations, from King Mpondomise. This week is a special one therefore, for the 28 clans that make up the amaMpondomise people in these districts of kuQumbu and kuTsolo. The traditional leadership of this region fought valiantly against colonialists, and suffered many hardships.

For example, King Mpondomise went into exile in Lesotho from 1882-1903, after the defeat of the Mpondomise people during Hope's War of 1880-81. He was arrested and charged with the murder of a magistrate, a Mr Hope, on his return in 1903, and was acquitted in May 1904.

Despite that, he was deposed from his throne by the colonial government and banished from his home from 1904-06. He later returned home as a commoner and died in 1912.

The visit to the burial sites of the various kings and royal personages culminating in Lotana, the resting place of King Ngcwina on Heritage Day, is an important step, which is a reminder of the origins of the amaMpondomise people and contribution to the history of our country.

We wish you well as you undertake this spiritual journey of reuniting with the ancestors of the amaMpondomise, who fought against colonialism.

We would like to emphasise as government that indigenous or traditional knowledge and practices are not a sole preserve of the African majority of our population.

All groups in South Africa, whether Jewish, Portuguese, Greek, English, Afrikaans has their own traditional practices, which enrich who they are, and gives them a particular identity.

These are the kinds of experiences that are encouraged during Heritage Month, which enable us to learn more about each other and respect our diversity as one united South African nation.

For example, traditional ways of cooking of English-South Africans may be different from those of the Portuguese or Italian-South Africans.

Welcoming a new-born baby into the family in a Greek-South African household may be different from that of a Hindu-South African household or a Venda one, and these are all practices that enrich our cultural diversity.

We therefore applaud what the amaMpondomise people are doing today, to remind us all to be proud of our origins and ancestral backgrounds, and to promote cultural tolerance.

Brothers and sisters, we must today also recommit ourselves to appreciate our elders in our communities, who are our living treasures. We rely on them for oral history, to know and understand ancient traditions, since due to colonialism and apartheid oppression; there is very little documented material.

As we celebrate that which makes the amaMpondo people proud, and the revival of this history, which should never be forgotten, we must also use this opportunity to reaffirm the crucial role of traditional leaders in rural communities.

Traditional leaders are the custodians of communal values, customs, traditions and culture. We believe they are better placed to assist the country in the building of strong, families, a united nation, and in fighting social ills such as domestic violence, and promote stronger families, as part of the Moral Regeneration Movement.

We urge traditional leaders to also increase their role and participation in the campaign to combat the spread of HIV and AIDS. This campaign needs the participation of every sector of our society, and given the respect accorded to traditional leaders in rural communities, they can make a stronger impact.

Most importantly, traditional leaders need to be at the forefront of efforts to eradicate poverty and underdevelopment, and participate in all programmes aimed to advance onset of a better life.

Let us use this occasion to therefore rededicate ourselves to all these responsibilities, for the good of this region, and indeed our country as a whole.

I wish you a Happy Heritage Day on the 24th and all the best for the Heritage programme of the amaMpondomise clan.

I thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
22 September 2004

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