Union Buildings, 27 April 2000
Deputy President Jacob Zuma
His Excellency Vice President of Nigeria
Ministers, Deputy Ministers and MEC’s
Mayor of Pretoria
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Six years ago, on this day, the 27th April, as South Africans, we took a decisive step forward as we freed ourselves from political and economic bondage. From that day onwards, all South Africans, regardless of race, class or gender regained their human dignity. The most basic tenet of democracy, the franchise was extended to all South Africans.
Through struggles, inside and outside our country, and ultimately through the vote we did away with the most abhorrent system of government that had brought misery, prejudice, endemic diseases and rampant poverty to the overwhelming majority of the people of South Africa.
We created through the constitution a legal framework that restored human dignity and guaranteed basic human rights for all South Africans. In doing so we created a platform from which South Africans from all walks of life, could join hands to transform our country into a better one, with its entire people enjoying a better quality of life.
As we celebrate the sixth anniversary of that epoch making event we need to take stock of the ground that we have covered in pursuit of what we set out to do in 1994, in pursuit of our strategic goals – a better life for all our people. At the same time, we must recommit ourselves to move with even greater speed to complete the work that still needs to be done to achieve our objective.
Our commitment to create conditions of prosperity and a better future is evidenced by the work government has done since 1994 to change for better the future of the country and the province.
Over the past six years we have created a new legacy of freedom and democracy. The overwhelming majority of South Africans who were victims of apartheid neglect now enjoy a better quality of life.
We have repealed all racist and oppressive laws, which discriminated against people on the basis of race, gender, disability and other factors and enacted laws that guaranteed equality and the improvement of the quality of life for all the people.
Greater numbers of South Africans now have access to adequate housing, health care, basic education, food, and water and social security grants.
Many black South Africans participate in the economy as more than just workers and consumers, signifying progress, however limited, towards the deracialisation of our economy. Women, workers, youth, rural communities and people with disabilities are for the first time receiving focused attention in government programmes.
When set our goals we were under no illusion that the new and better South Africa we seek to build could be build overnight. We have always made the point, to the annoyance of its architects, that in many ways, apartheid's legacy continues to define the nature of our society.
Often, the architects of this terrible system whose legacy we have had to wage a determined struggle to overcome, would argue that the problems the new South Africa has to grapple with are the creation of the democratic order and therefore represent its failure.
While we may not have achieved as much as we would have wished, it was not because of lack of will or not putting enough effort into our work, as those who persistently refuse to see reason and reality would want everybody to believe.
As government, we are aware, that freedom must mean more than the right to vote every couple of years. We know that in some areas more still need to be done to ensure that our people live in safety and security. We are equally aware of the need to help move our people out of abject poverty as well as work with all sections of our society to prevent our people from falling prey to the Aids pandemic.
We owe it to those heroes and heroines of our people who fought tirelessly and gave all their life to the course of our liberation to move with even greater speed and more determination to complete the task of building a better South Africa.
We owe it to the millions of our people who still do not have access to primary health care, housing, basic education, food, water and continue to live under conditions of abject poverty to accelerate this process of building a better South Africa.
As part of building this better South Africa we also need to give absolute priority to the ongoing search for the cure to HIV/Aids. This must include increasing our efforts to mobilise popular awareness of the seriousness of the epidemic, continuing to fund research work and ensuring that people living with HIV/Aids are not discriminated against.
More importantly, we must end the huge debt of racial and gender discrimination in the area of wealth distribution, and employment patterns, for these cannot be ignored when millions still face the cruelty of this country’s racist past.
Looking around here today, we see children from schools across our province.
Their presence today symbolises a commitment to build a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa. As parents and politicians we must join hands with them to help inculcate a future where South Africans, regardless of race, gender, class and political persuasion can come together to celebrate their liberation.
Together with them we must proclaim for all inside and outside our country to hear – that we are South Africans and proud of it! We must loudly proclaim that regardless of the difficulties we may encounter, in this long journey to a future free of crime and violence against women and children, we are determined to soldier on.
While this day, Freedom Day, should continue to play its symbolic role, South Africans must experience their freedom not only when they attend festivities to mark the day. As every day passes they must feel that their lives are continuously changing for the better.
As we celebrate freedom day we must reassure Sekhukhuni, Shaka, Nghunghugane, Hlatshwayo, Albert Luthuli, Moses Kotane, Duma Nokwe, Braam Fischer, Yusuf Dadoo, Ruth First, Helen Joseph, Dorothy Nyembe, OR Tambo, Joe Slovo, Tomas Nkobi, Alfred Nzo and other heroes and heroines that we shall not veer from their course.
In conclusion, I wish to inform all of you that the Gauteng Provincial Government has decided that all future Freedom Day celebrations will take place at the Union Building.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am ware of the immense challenges that lie ahead but knowing the resilience of South Africans, I am however certain that we are equipped to confront them.
The key to creating a better life for all of us remains our joint effort. We have demonstrated in the recent past that we can rise to the challenge. Let us once more rise to the challenge as we embark on a long journey to create a better tomorrow.