Issued by: Office of the Deputy President
29 OCTOBER 1999
Master of Ceremonies,
Deputy Minister Mabandla,
MEC for Tourism Nosimo Balindlela,
Performing Artists,
Guest,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
In 1955 our people gathered in Kliptown to draft one of the most important documents of our time. They gathered to decide what type of country they would like to live in when freedom had been attained. One fundamental aspect of the resolutions reached at that conference, called the Congress of the People, in 1955 is contained in the Preamble of the Charter which states that only a democratic state, based on the will of the people, can secure to all - their birthright within distinction of colour, race, sex and belief. Because we are now a democratic state, the birthrights of all our people have been secured. One of those birthrights is the freedom to enjoy our culture.
Indeed we can proudly look back at our record and say that the opening of the festival today is in agreement with the promise we made in 1955 when we stated that "The Doors of Learning and Culture Shall be Opened." This festival is the affirmation of this clause.
Our coming together at Lusikisiki today to celebrate this cultural festival is one of the signs which proves that we as the people of South Africa have attained our freedom.
The freedom we are celebrating today is broader in meaning because in that we can now practice our culture without fear. Ours is now a culture that can be exercised, enriched and interpreted with pride. By interpreting ourselves through our culture, we can meet people of other cultures as equals. In the same vein, today people of other cultures can also look at us with a comprehensive and better understanding of our way of life.
This particular section of the Preamble also means that no government can claim authority unless the people give it that authority. We are implementing now what was said in 1955 because you gave us the authority to do so. As a people we should therefore be proud that we are now determining our own destiny. The ability to determine one's destiny is a fundamental part of being free.
We are gathered today to witness the 1994 and the 1999 elections as a first step towards the maintenance of the rights of our people.
In these two elections our people fulfilled one of the cornerstones of the Charter because by voting they were sending us to work. In effect they were affirming that "The People Shall Govern.", which is the most powerful clause of the Charter. The freedom to do what we have been witnessing over the last six years, and particularly this freedom to celebrate this event, has come about because the people are governing.
This deeper understanding means that we can only relate cultures and not compare them, because in comparing them, we would be implying superiority of one over the other. The theory of the existence of a superior culture is one which was based on inequality. As we revisit the basic clauses of the Freedom Charter therefore, we are in agreement that we have overcome the inequalities. In the final analysis each culture is good within the context of its practitioners.
The President will announce Commissioners who will serve in a new Commission for Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities in the near future. This announcement will concretise the cultural freedom of our people. We envisage that all cultural, religious and linguistic groups will use the Commission as an avenue to protect and promote themselves in these aspects. It is also going to work as a check against us as government to see to it that we do not, for one moment, deviate from the noble aims of the Freedom Charter, specifically as it relates to culture.
At various levels, in the previous dispensation there were efforts to undermine culture through unnecessary harsh laws, but our culture has stood the test of time. Today, we can boldly state that we together and in equality with those who sought to undermine our culture, can safely look at the changing South Africa and say that all cultures are legally protected. As equal African people we should revive the previously undermined African greatness through the pursuance of the ideals of the African Renaissance.
The forceful entry of the cultural sector in the development of the Wild Coast Corridor, should help cultural activists to form strategic partnership with big business. Together they should bring investments into the other sectors of the economy. Indeed, this cultural festival should find ways and means to complement eco-tourism and adventure tourism which will soon be major economic boosts for the Wild Coast area. Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe that the success of the Wild Coast Spatial Development Initiative (SDI) is inter-linked with the cultures that exist in this region. The unspoiled culture of the people "should" be harnessed to complement the state of the art accommodation, both of which should create employment opportunities.
In order to encourage economic development in the region more than R200 million has been committed towards the development of Tourism-related infrastructure.
About R2 million of this amount has been earmarked for the Working for Water project and clean up campaigns. This is one of the agreements made at the Job Summit earlier this year. The tourism industry in this region would be greatly enhanced by easy access to facilities through better roads. This integrated approach to the development of the region means that the Kei Cuttings will receive attention and the R61 road will be upgraded. The Agricultural sector will also be boosted by the restructuring of the Tea Estate and a concerted effort to dispose of State-owned farms which have a potential for high value export crops. Fishing opportunities and mariculture will also feature prominently. The Nelson Mandela Museum in Qunu, storing all gifts received by the former State President, will also attract people from the world over.
The above figures and plans highlight Government's vision for the region as a place with tremendous economic potential. Ladies and Gentlemen, as I indicated earlier, the overall strategy of government, together with its social partners, is to empower communities and to develop our human resource. As early as next year, a sum of R100 million will be used in the first phase and will cover three of the projected six nodes of development. The sum total of this commitment is linked to the theme "Freedom in Prosperity" but more appropriately, we are sending a clear message, that we are determined to ensure, as stated in the 1955 Freedom Charter, that "There Shall Be Work and Security" and that "The People Shall Share In The Country's Wealth."
By organising such a festival, we are reasserting ourselves as a people. This is a journey that will dismiss a historical distortion and affirm that activities which will be performed today have been a part of our culture for generations. As you perform them, you will be rewriting a script that was not recorded because of the nature of the relationships of the past. Because we are now a free people, our artists and the recorders of history are charged with a duty to rewrite this history so that our children will own it, identify with it and pass it on to their own children for generations to come. They, unlike us who only remember from oral transmission, will have the advantage of the technological advances to ensure that our history is preserved in a manner and form recognisable to our people.
In this corridor, culture fits in with the tourism industry because our people will be engaged in meaningful profit-making ventures., displaying that which they are and therefore know best. Through this involvement they are going to create entrepreneurial activities and small-scale enterprises that fit into larger SDI programs. They are joining this venture not in the lesser role as employees but as employers in their own right. Strides are now being made by our people to achieve the clause of the 1955 document that says "The People Shall Share in the Country's Wealth.
The call to our people to work for a better life finds resonance in gatherings like these.
These activities clearly indicate that we as government in true, strong and, above all, smart partnerships with our people, are on the right track to achieve the objectives contained in the Freedom Charter. Many South Africans who embrace the document now use it as a benchmark to monitor governments' progress. Indeed as legislation after legislation is tabled before the Houses of Parliament, each one of the ten clauses is being gradually met.
WE ARE INDEED ON COURSE!
It therefore gives me great pleasure to declare this, the Wild Coast Cultural Festival Celebrating Cultural Diversity, on this the 29th day of October 1999, officially opened.