Issued by: Office of the Minister Department of Transport
SPEECH DELIVERED DURING THE DEBATE ON THE PREMIER'S STATE OF THE PROVINCE ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND LEADER OF THE ANC IN KWAZULU-NATAL
15 FEBRUARY 2000: KWAZULU-NATAL LEGISLATURE, ULUNDI
I n his State of the Province address yesterday the Premier laid considerable emphasis on the "unity of purpose and harmony of efforts" as an indispensable requirement "to ensure that the province of KwaZulu-Natal and its elected government remain relevant and provide genuine leadership for our people".
These are sentiments and objectives with which we fully identify. Indeed, all members of this house and all levels of leadership should find new vigor to translate these sentiments into reality "WITHOUT EVER FORGETTING THE PAST, WE MUST GORE AHEAD TO THE FUTURE..."
We are all wont to say that we need to do what is right for the sake of future generations. But a leader only becomes relevant if he or she can lead his or her generation. He or she becomes a figure of historical significance only if he or she was able to deal with the questions that confront his or her own generation and society. The call made by the Premier yesterday must be understood in this context. Distance as well as proximity sometimes distorts reality. Being too close to something can cause one to lose sight of the bigger picture.
A unique experiment is taking place in South Africa. We are treading a path that has not been treaded before. Two concepts stand out as uniquely South African.
The first of these is non-racialism. This is a uniquely South African creation. It contrasts significantly to the multi-racialism of the United States and elsewhere. The US has been described as a CASP society with a core nationality. CASP refers to Capitalist Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Anglo-Saxon, Protestant defines you as first amongst equals. That is why John Kennedy, a Catholic was such an exception. If you are African American, the best you can do in a society so ordered is to demand your racial quota.
France and Portugal on the other hand, pursued a policy of assimilation. The key issue was to absorb and assimilate French or Portuguese culture and one's acceptability depended on the degree of that assimilation.
Others at different periods adopted a policy of " one nation must die".
Democratic South Africa has enshrined the principle of non-racialism. It is a unique experiment and we dare not fail. The second uniquely South African experiment is that of peace and reconciliation. Ten years ago, through the foresight of our leaders first amongst whom was Nelson Mandela, a time came when the spiral of violence and self destruction had to be stopped. In the words of Dr M Buthelezi we had to agree that "no problem existed to which violence was the answer" and thus began a period of healing of extremely hurtful divisions between blacks and whites and a new non-racial democratic South Africa emerged.
But this peace and reconciliation eluded KwaZulu-Natal. Today, however, KwaZulu-Natal is closest to lasting peace than it has ever been in the last 172 years. If the experiment of non-racialism, peace and reconciliation is to succeed in South Africa, it has go to succeed in the microcosm of South Africa that is KwaZulu-Natal. In 1889, Rudyard Kipling wrote his Ballad of East and West "oh, East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet..".
This was untrue even as he wrote it. By 1860 East had met the West in KwaZulu-Natal. But what is more, East had met the East. The Indian people come from the East. The African people occupy the Eastern shores of South Africa. It is this that has come to be known as KwaZulu- Natal. Where East meet West.
Relative peace prevails between African and Afrikaner in spite of Ncome (Bllod River) of 1838. Without forgetting the past we are forging ahead to a common future. Relative peace prevails between Africans and the English in spite of Isandlwana of 1879. W!ithout forgetting the past we are forging ahead to a common future. Peace prevails between African and Indians in KwaZulu-Natal in spite of 1949. Cognizant of our past we are forging ahead to a non-racial future.
President Thado Mbeki has put the rebirth and renewal of Africa as central to us emerging as a people able to claim their rightful place in the community of nations on the world stage. That renaissance depends on peace. We have seen centripetal forces making impossible the emergence of democracy on our continent. On the other hand we have been sad witnesses of centrifugal forces turn promising nations into clans to count for nothing in the organization of society for development. There is no war between any African nation and Europe. But there is a continental state of emergency in Africa. Africans are at war with themselves. It is African versus Africa.
But there is a marked difference between what is going on in Africa and that which is taking place in KwaZulu-Natal. Whether you talk of the Hutu versus Tutsi in Bujumbura, Burundi, or Shona versus Ndebele in Zimbabwe or Muslim versus Christian in Kosovo or Catholic versus Protestant in Ireland there is a common thread of perceivable differences elevated to a justification for conflict. The us and them syndrome derives from the fact that:
They don't speak our language. They worship a different God. They stay in their own territory possibly encroaching on ours. They have different tribal markings.
Not so in KwaZulu-Natal. It is fratricide.
I could not help observing the irony of it all at the opening of the Legislature by His Majesty on Friday, 11 February 2000 here in Ulundi. It was an uplifting experience. Our guest of honour was the Chairperson of the NCOP, Ms Naledi Pandor. In her other life she is also a senior member of the ANC. Her father is a senior member of the national Government. But this father of a senior member of the ANC is a senior member of the IFP. And the family has not broken down because of that. I am told that is characterized by a culture of vibrant and brilliant debate.
That is the rub. African - African conflict and therefore African-African reconciliation is not about some tribe out there. It has been a conflict between a people.
Who speak the same language.
Pay allegiance to the same King.
Stay in the same townships, amakhosi areas, informal
Settlements, commercial farms and missions stations, indeed same
families and homesteads.
They have the same tribal marking and worship the same God.
In a literal sense therefore we have been fighting amongst ourselves. We are the children of King Shaka as we are the children of Inkosi Albert Luthuli and Bishop Alpheus Zulu. yesterdays ANC is today's IFP and today's IFP is tomorrow's ANC.
Nobody comes to this House representing any specific area. Nobody comes to this House representing any particular individual. We come here representing our organizations. It is a organizations that we sought the mandate of the electorate on the June 1999.
Through it's democratic processes, the ANC at Makikeng in December 1997 unequivocally instructed it's leadership at National, Provincial, Regional and Local level that in relation to the IFP, the ANC's aims and objectives are not to clobber and take out of existence the IFP. Conference guided by our President and drawing from the members own practical experience had arrived at the conclusion that not only was taking the IFP out of existence impossible, but it held no particular profit for the ANC.
At its' National conference in July 1998 in Ulundi the IFP guided by its President and through it's own independent organizational processes unequivocally instructed its leadership at all levels that the IFP did not regard the ANC as its enemy. On the contrary, far from the shadow of any looming election, the two organizations decided to substitute conflict for co-operation as the only way in which they can genuinely represent the people to whom they inspired hope of a better life.
The electorate itself made that co-operation mandatory. Neither the ANC nor IFP could rule on its own. Technically each could form a government excluding the other. The Western Cape had done it.
Yesterday's expulsion from cabinet of the most popular and farsighted MEC for Social Services Mr Piet Marias of the NNP underlines the ever shrinking base which the Western Cape government purports to represent. In no way can the Western Cape option represent stability and non-racialism and democracy.
The unification process of the disparate clans of what came to be known as the Kingdom of the Zulu did not get the luxury of a reasonable period of formation. It spanned only 12 years. After King Shaka's demise in 1828 the period of deep divisions began. In time, Natal and Zululand came not only to denote geographic description, but cultural and ideological as well. It is these divisions between African and African, Zulu and Zulu if you prefer that made the subjugation and land dispossession more complete than anywhere else in South Africa. It is this that the people of this province expect this government to reverse. No!t more divisions based on Black and White. Not more divisions based on Christian and non Christian. Not more divisions based on urgan and rural. Not more division based on an acceptance of democracy for African urban dwellers and its non-acceptance for rural African communities.
The KZN IFP-ANC coalition government represents the best opportunity to heal these age old wounds. Without ever forgetting our past we must forge ahead to our common future. We are in a state emergency in the province. A state of emergency does not only arise when you need to conduct widespread suppression of the will of the majority as had happened in the past. It also happens and must happen when the elected majority correctly decides to jump-start the hitherto disenfranchised and hopelessly underdeveloped constituency. WE MUST RUN WHILE THEY WALK. Our most urgent task is the completion of the formation of our Coalition government on the basis of the 18th June 1999 agreement through the adoption of a Provincial Constitution. Tardiness and procrastination would be unforgivable.
In the national government headed by President Thabo Mbeki and in which the President of the IFP, INKOSI M Buthelezi is a senior member, KwaZulu-Natal has the best opportunity since the battle of Ulundi to elaborate and secure the place of traditional leaders, not instead of and in opposition to elected representatives in rural areas but side by side with them each assuming their separate but essential and complementary role. After all it is not part of our historical experience that where traditional rule adapted to democratic rule its survived perpetually? That where each said it is us or them it resulted in impoverishment or common ruin of both? Is this not this adaptation that has led to the survival of traditional leadership in the UK, Norway, Uganda and Ghana to count but a few. Is there an alternative to this creative adaptation that excludes conflict as part of the ingredients?
WITHOUT EVER FORGETTING THE PAST, WE MUST FORGE AHEAD TO OUR COMMON FUTURE!!