Issued by: Office of the Deputy President
ADDRESS BY DEPUTY PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA AT THE NATIONAL HERITAGE DAY CELEBRATIONS PRETORIA, 24 SEPTEMBER 1999
The Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Other Cabinet Ministers present Valued artists Members of the press Distinguished guests and fellow South Africans
Today we celebrate our country's many cultures, languages and traditions. Today, we also reflect on the ways in which we remember our forbears and the legacy of our history. It is a day in which we examine our hopes, expectations and dreams for the path ahead and consider effective ways to realise our goals. It is also a day for rejoicing, in the full knowledge of the dynamic future that awaits us. The theme of Heritage Day, "A Nation at Work for a Better Life", captures the vision of our President, the government and the mood of our people. It is thus an appropriate theme for this day, in which we both remember the past, and look to the future. For just over five years, as a nation we have worked with commitment and belief to build a better life for all. Our people have taken up the challenges that faces us with enthusiasm and we have enjoyed unprecedented success. Today we are a blossoming democracy on the brink of a new millennium. Yet we are aware of the setbacks we have suffered and the challenges that still face us. We are aware of the need to continue to work together, aware of the need for us to contribute nationally, regionally and globally to the reconstruction of human society. But, let us rejoice. We have a constitution that honours the integrity and rights of all of our citizens. We have a government with a strong mandate from the people to continue its work to transform our country; and we have a nation of people who enjoy the right to determine their destiny. Sadly, the twentieth century has been characterised by the oppression of our people and a fundamental disrespect of our multi-culturalism, our multi-lingualism and indeed, our very humanity. Our people have been divided and fragmented. We have been de-humanised by a past in which the richness and value of the cultures of our many communities were denied. We have suffered the indignity and the pain of the failure by the apartheid government to acknowledge and affirm our culture, in its efforts to separate and marginalised our people and discredit our very roots. But our roots are strong and reach far beyond the narrow confines of any system of oppression. The strength of our past, the depth and breadth of our pre-colonial history, and our ability to adapt and grow have nourished us. Today Africa is recognised as the cradle of mankind. In our part of the continent we have a rich and varied past that is only now being appreciated for its complexity and diversity. Indeed our heritage is the foundation from which we are working to rebuild our society. While there are still many challenges to be met: -poverty still gnaws at many of our people, disease still threatens our development - at last, we have a government that has worked and is working for the people and with the people. We are a nation ready to meet the new millennium, to engage with glablisation and the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century. We will play a meaningful and strong role in the African Renaissance. My message to you today is to rejoice in the richness of our society. I urge you to think of the countless opportunities that abound for each of us, for our communities, our country and our continent. I would like you to think of your heritage, of how different it is, in may respects, from that of your parents. Think too of salient features that link you to the generations that came before, of themes and traditions that have shaped your life. Think now of the heritage of those around you, of the breadth and scope of experience found at today's parade. The richness of experience in which our identity as South Africans is embedded is an invaluable resource for sustainable development. For, in looking at who we are, we acknowledge the richness of our cultural heritage which we have, all too often in the past, failed to recognise as valuable assets. In doing this, the variety of traditions from which we come and the broad spectrum of indigenous knowledge in our communities, will emerge as integral elements of our nation at work. The culture of work begins in the home and, for many people, often those in rural areas and especially the women of our nation, industry from within the home creates employment. The Cultural Industries Growth Strategy conceptualised by the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology is establishing enabling mechanisms for economic Empowerment, giving our crafters, our artists, our writers and many others working in associated fields of endeavour, the chance to penetrate both local and international markets. To illustrate the power of culture in creating a better life, the example of tourism springs to mind. Foreign tourism is expected to make an economic contribution of R29.7 billion to South Africa in the year 2000. Currently, at least 37% of all visits have a cultural element. Our crafts and our cultural villages are significant employment generators. Government is working in partnership with dance groups, music groups, storytellers and others in rural communities to assist them to access the tourist market.
If culture is what we collectively do, then heritage is what we have collectively inherited. Here I ask you to think of the ways in which we celebrate our heritage and commemorate our past. Think too of the ways in which governments around the world approach this key aspect of national identity. Historically the means and ends have been diverse and yet, whether in Europe or Africa, certain trends have emerged depending on the type of government. Representation in monuments and memorials has tended to be used, broadly speaking, to either attempt to limit and control perceptions of national identity and history or to stimulate thought, debate and ongoing creative interaction with issues of national heritage. Our democracy seeks to facilitate an equitable, inclusive and representative understanding of our histories. Our government seeks to redress the neglected legacy of our country. We are working to ensure that the many events and themes that contributed who we are today are recognised. We are seeking to redress the serious imbalances that exist in the representation of our history and ensure that future generations remember the many people who worked with courage to create the free society in which we now live. The key initiative in this regard is the Legacy Project. The Legacy Project strives to find effective, relevant ways to commemorate our history. Indeed, many of the projects that are being implemented come in response to wide-spread and popular requests and suggestions by the citizens of the country, and others, for new monuments. The Nelson Mandela Museum at Qunu in the Eastern Cape will serve to remind us of the moral and intellectual courage of the President of our first democratically elected government and his symbolic value to people everywhere. It will house the thousands of gifts given to him from all of the corners of the world and stand as testament to the respect that integrity merits:
The legacy Project is dynamic in its approach to commemorating our past. We are not crating a state-sanctioned and censored view of history, rather, we are providing the build-structures and symbolic mechanisms for an equitable and re-contextualised representation of our heritage. We have the opportunity to formulate informed and meaningful views of our past. I would like to mention at this point the Anglo Boer War, the centenary of which is to be commemorated from next month till May 2000. The international nature of the war is widely known. In these last celebrations before the turn of the century we are endeavouring to ensure that the role of all South Africans is accorded the recognition that it deserves. The ancestors of South Africans across the racial spectrum were involved in the war. People of all races experienced its ravages, and many suffered and died in the conflict. We need to revisit our history, to challenge existing narrow perceptions of the war and to acknowledge the role of all the diverse people that were involved in it. Within the tragedy of the war lies the greater anathema, the callous disregard for the lives and experiences of black people, the failure to give acknowledgement, however token, to a great number of the casualties of the war. For at its centenary, we look back and realise that it was not only and Anglo-Boer War, but a South African war. Let us work, each one of us, to challenge ourselves to revisit the past with an open mind and to approach the future with a sense of optimism and hope. Today's parade illustrates the joy we share as a nation in working together to create and re-create our identity. Our strength in diversity, in multi-culturalism and in accepting complexity lies within us. Our lives are enriched by our heritage and a better life is becoming a reality.
I thank you.