7 May 1998
The master of ceremonies, Principal and vice Chancellor Professor Aaron Ndlovu, parents, students, ladies and gentlemen, I greet you all.
On this day, 7 May 1945, exactly 53 years ago, Hitler's successor, Doenitz, surrendered to the allied forces marking the end of the second world war. Hitler had committed suicide seven days earlier on 7 April 1945. The war had been the ultimate in mankind's capacity for evil. Fascism was obnoxious to every decent human being. It proclaimed the superiority of one race over others. For this Hitler had unleashed the most destructive and racist war the world had ever seen. The world had in turn united across ideological, racial, religious divisions to defeat this scourge.
The process of decolonisation also began in earnest after this date. The concept "Third World" came to denote those countries that achieved their freedom from colonialism after this date. With the establishment of the United Nations, the world was firmly on the road to democratisation - even in South Africa. General Smuts had established the Fagan Commission to look at ways blacks could participate in the government of this country after the dummy Native Representative Council had been rejected.
It was therefore completely against this world trend that on 26 May 1948, that the National Party under Dr DF Malan won the elections in South Africa on an apartheid platform. Apartheid was a policy derived from fascist Germany. Some of the leading lights of the National Party like Oswald Pirow ( who became Minister of Justice), BJ Vorster - the future Prime Minister, Ben Schoeman (who became Minister of Transport) and Henning Klopper ( who became the Speaker of Parliament) had simultaneously been active members of the Nazi Party in Germany.
This was in May 1948.
On 10 May 1994, after 46 years of National Party devastation, against all odds and expectations, Nelson Mandela was installed as the first democratically elected President of the Republic of South Africa.
This marked a qualitative historical moment in the course of transfer of political power from the white minority to the democratic majority. Many who had fought to see this day, like Oliver Tambo and Chris Hani, perished before its dawn. Archbishop Trevor Huddlestone perhaps summed it up best when he said he hung on to dear life just to see South Africa becoming a normal democratic country. That was in May 1994.
Today, 7 May 1998, 53 years after the defeat of world fascism, 50 years after the ascension to power of the apartheid regime and after fours years of democratic rule, you are graduating.
Speaking of the tasks of the different generations, Thabo Mbeki said that the generation of Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Harry Gwala and Joe Slovo was to bring about freedom and 10 May 1994 was the culmination of that supreme sacrifice. But, the present generation has as its task the transformation of South Africa from an apartheid society to a non-racial, non-sexist, non-tribal and democratic one.
May 1994 saw the establishment of an interim government of national unity, an interim government of provincial unity and transitional local councils. The word interim or transitional runs through all three layers of government in South Africa. That the transformation from an apartheid society to a democratic one could not be achieved overnight came to be understood by all practitioners of transformation.
Even then, the NP tried a rearguard action by arguing we needed a 15-20 year transitional period. That we rejected. We set ourselves a target of five years as adequate to dismantle all the institutions of apartheid and replace them with democratic ones. The first democratic elections of April 1994 established democratically elected governments at national and provincial level. Transitional local government was to be established from November 1995 to June 1996.
But apartheid was more than just the legislative and executive bodies. The public service had to be transformed to be representative and responsive to the demands of the new democratic order. The army, instead of being an instrument for oppressing its own people, had to be transformed to be a representative body ever ready to defend the democratic gains and the constitution.
Similar changes had to be brought to the police, the judiciary and parastatals. Thus most of these institutions are now led by people deriving from previously disenfranchised communities. Constitutional mechanisms were put in place to ensure that these gains were not dependent on the whims of the ruling party.
The constitution recognised that by the mere granting of the vote to black people you could not by the stroke of the pen remove the decades of inequalities brought about by apartheid. Hence affirmative action is recognised by the constitution as a major instrument of redress. The constitution also created institutions to strengthen constitutional democracy. Among these are the Public Protector, the Human Rights Commission, Commission for Gender Equality and the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities.
Minister of Public Administration, Zola Skweyiya's recently published White Paper seeks to ensure that the whole public sector should be fully representative and reflective of our society within this interim phase.
To add to these democratic instruments, Labour Minister Tito Mboweni is piloting the Employment Equity Bill to reaffirm the government's determination to transform South Africa.
The Employment Equity Bill has received overwhelming support from all previously disenfranchised people and there is no self respecting black organisation or person who can oppose it. It is a bold declaration saying "We will not stop halfway - that in our land we shall be truly free!"
The Bill seeks to eliminate unfair discrimination in employment and to provide for affirmative action to redress the imbalances of the past and create equality in employment. This legislation is drafted with a view to advancing those groups who have been disadvantaged as a result of discrimination caused by laws and social practices, and not with a view to seeking retribution for past injustices.
It is for this reason that at the national cabinet made up of the ANC and IFP it received unanimous and enthusiastic support, without any dissension.
In the words of the Editor of Enterprise Magazine, Thami Mazwai " Mboweni joins the likes of Nkosazana Zuma, Stella Sigcau, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Jay Naidoo, Alec Erwin and Jeff Radebe as those ministers who will leave no stone unturned in their commitment to a better life for blacks. At this stage, it is necessary to put the record straight about Sigcau. She has been vilified but scores of black professionals, especially in the legal and accounting fields salute her".
I quote this to illustrate that the transition is not without spirited opposition. After all, the supporters of the apartheid status quo will support the quo long after it has lost its status.
In 11 months, the transitional phase will be coming to an end. Ours is a popular movement for liberation. The participation of the masses of our people was essential to overthrow apartheid. But to consolidate democracy, we need to be more vigilant and resolute especially in a period where it is much more difficult to distinguish friend from foe. We must be able to identify those seeking restoration to the past even if they are concealed under the same colour, language, family ties, tribal markings or even if they raise the same flag as us.
The debacle between Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi and Police Commissioner George Fivaz, the demise of General George Meiring and the appointment of General Siphiwe Nyanda as head of the SANDF, the tragic stand of 14 KwaZulu-Natal judges against the appointment of the highly regarded Justice Vuka Tshabalala and the unprecedented insult of subjecting a head of state to nine hours of inquiry about his mental state when he made an executive decision about SARFU and dismissing that testimony in 27 seconds, all this illustrates just how difficult this transition is going to be.
Hence, it is critical that men and women imbued with a spirit of patriotism and service to the long suffering people enter the upper middle and middle sections of the public service, army and police to make this qualitative difference.
As you graduate today, a new patriotism is required of you. In the public sector, you have choices which were beyond the reach of more than 97% of the black population and you have the opportunity to make a difference. But our society is not just the government and its institutions.
What of the private sector? First some basic facts. When we took over the reigns of power in 1994, there is nothing we did not do to ensure that the political transition in this country did not damage a fragile economy as had happened elsewhere. We did everything in our power to elevate issues of the economy above narrow party political interest. To maintain business confidence and as an act of good faith, we appointed Derek Keys- the Minister of Finance under the National Party government- as Minister of Finance in the first democratic government.
When Keys moved on into the private sector, Chris Liebenberg from the business sector was appointed. The new government did not denounce the crippling apartheid debt. If it did, it would have destroyed the capacity for any South African to enter into any international agreement. Investor friendly policies like GEAR were adopted to ensure the recovery of the Rand New markets were opened in the African continent and global alliances are now the order of the day.
But what has the new government received in return from business? The appointment of Trevor Manuel was met with the most fierce opposition that bordered on racism. More importantly, the policies adopted by the government in the public sector to reverse the inequalities of apartheid is not being emulated by the private sector.
South Africa may not be a United State or a Japan but it is also not a Mickey Mouse economy. The investment muscle that South Africa commands is in the order of R2 trillion. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange accounts for R1.3 trillion. It is the ordinary citizens of the country that contribute to the investment that have made so few so rich. Old Mutual has investment of over R200 billion, Sanlam around R160 billion, the combined pension funds of Eskom, Transnet and the mining sector command about R120 billion. It is the black people who are the majority contributors to these funds.
In its 1996 country Review, the ILO concluded that SA had the highest levels of inequality of any country in the world. 95% of the poor are Africans and 65% of the Africans are poor. 33% of the coloured population live in poverty compared for 2,5% of Asians and 0,7% for Whites.
The South African economy is like an Irish Coffee. Black at the bottom, white at the top with sprinkling of black granules. If this was merely a historical fact, it would be bad enough. But there is no serious move by business o change this equation. South African boardrooms are still white, with very few exceptions. In this respect, KwaZulu Natal is the worst.
The conflict between the ANC and IFP has actually assisted to keep white business white while blacks are otherwise engaged in mutual self destruction. There has been no serious black empowerment programmes in the province when compared with , for example, Gauteng, which in itself is not saying much.
Deliberate action is required at two levels. Government must refuse to do business with any business that does not show a deliberate programme of deracialisation both within management and in the labour force.
But new job seekers, whether full time or as students, must ensure that companies which will only employ whites are petitioned and redress should be sought through the many institutions of democracy.
As the President of the ANC Youth League Malusi Gigaba puts it: The intelligentsia of this country, especially the progressive echelons, remain the daunting challenge to define and understand their place and role during the current phase of the democratic revolution. Over the last two years, these echelons, which include students, have seemed alienated from the continuing democratic struggle, often driven by selfish parasitic interest, either focused on appropriating maximum resources and advantage for themselves or resisting to participate in the process of setting the country's agenda for change.
As graduates, you are going to provide the critical mass which will make our democracy a reality. It is very well to appoint a chief of the army who is black but if he is going to be surrounded by officers still committed to the apartheid past because there are no new recruits with the appropriate education, it amounts to naught. This applies to the public sector, as well as the business sector
Events like those taking place at UNITRA, where demands which have no regard for the capacity of the South African economy, can only prolong minority domination. Destruction of the institution's property can never be condoned.
As you graduate, there are many expectations. There is what you owe to yourself, to your family and to your people. Whether we are going to make it as a truly free people capable of running our country and interacting with the rest of the continent depends on how seriously you take your responsibility.
While in prison, when the Vorsters and the PW Bothas tried to boost the apartheid morale saying they will fight to the last man, we were always left unimpressed. Having seen security police and prison warders at close quarters, we already knew who the last man was. We had discovered that these were the real nowhere men defending a nowhere policy which had a nowhere future. We were not afraid. Our moral superiority over them was confirmed.
As new soldiers of transformation, no one should think of you as we thought of the defenders of apartheid. Accepting racial or professional inferiority will not only humiliate you but will take something from all of us. The gloating that is evident whenever any black person fails helps to feed into the racial stereotype that is still alive in South Africa.
Let those who believe that black people can never be technological nation, a scientific nation, a judicial nation and a management nation but can only be fighting nation and a jiving nation abandon their racist shibboleths.
Take risks. Remember that the only time a tortoise makes any progress is when it sticks its neck out. You must be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there
I thank you