20 March 2001
Madam Speaker
Honourable Members
From its formation in 1912, the ANC has fought for an inclusive society, wherein all its people, regardless of national group or colour, should be part of every process in our country, including political decision making.
In fact, the objective of the unity of all our people and the principle of a non-racial and democratic society was the foundation upon which the ANC was formed.
To date, no other political organisation in this country that has fought, sacrificed and defended these principles except the ANC.
In pursuance of these noble goals and objectives, the ANC and its allies organised, in 1955, the historic Congress of the People whose main objective was to crystallise these ideals. Thousands of South Africans made a declaration at Kliptown that was to be the guiding principle of the African National Congress and of the democratic movement as a whole. They said in unequivocal terms:
"We the people of South Africa declare for all our country and world to know that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people."
Madam Speaker, these words (among others) form the principle that has guided the African National Congress in leading the people of South Africa in their struggle for liberation and a better life for all.
This historic declaration, coming as it did at the height of repression and the erosion of the dignity of black people under the National Party's racist rule, was brave and groundbreaking. The impact of apartheid oppression and subjugation was described by our first Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the then ANC President, Chief Albert Luthuli in 1960 as follows: "Non-whites, under the minority rule of whites only, have for decades suffered and continue to suffer a repression that not only impoverishes them, but is a most humiliating affront to their person and dignity."
The adoption of the Freedom Charter and the ideas it espoused was in line with the general thinking within the ANC. In a speech read on his behalf in Ladysmith on October 31, 1953, Chief Luthuli stressed that the weapon of meeting the challenge of white domination was to create a strong front of all freedom loving people in our country.
He said: "The African National Congress is pledged to this policy. We are pledged to work and co-operate with those who, respecting us as a people, share our democratic aspirations and relentlessly oppose domination."
I am quoting this Madam speaker, to remind this House of our history, and the leading role played by our liberation movement in uniting all South Africans in fighting the demon of racism. Throughout its history, the ANC's Presidents have articulated these ideals.
In 1986, President Oliver Tambo, receiving the Third World Prize award on behalf of Nelson and Winnie Mandela in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, recommitted the ANC to continuing the onslaught against apartheid and racism in our country.
He said, "No amount of political maneuvering or killing of our people will blunt or stop the offensive of our masses, under the leadership of the African National Congress, to destroy racism in our country. It is a victory that we will use to build a truly democratic South Africa, one in which we shall abolish racism once and for all, and end the unjust and unequal relations of domination and exploitation that exist between black and white in our country today and which are expressed in the concept and the practice of apartheid."
Former President Mandela made a similar statement in his defence statement in the Old Synagogue Court in 1962 when he said, "The African National Congress believed that all people, irrespective of the national groups to which they may belong, and irrespective of the colour of their skins, all people whose home is South Africa and who believe in the principles of democracy, and of the equality of men, should be treated as Africans."
This Madam Speaker, was the same concept as the one enunciated in the epoch making speech of our President Mbeki, delivered in this very House on May 8 1996, when he declared: "I am an African".
In this address he too expresses the feelings, emotions and ideas expressed by all his predecessors as follows, "The constitution, whose adoption we celebrate, constitutes an unequivocal statement that we refuse to accept that our African-ness shall be defined by our race, colour, gender or historical origins.
It is a firm assertion made by ourselves that South Africa belongs to all who live in it - black and white. It gives concrete expression to the sentiment we share as Africans and will defend to the death, that the people shall govern."
Today, as we sit in this House, Madam Speaker, we speak guided by the wisdom of men and women who taught us that racism is an evil monster that we should fight at all costs, together as South Africans.
South Africa made a grand entrance into the international arena and was received warmly by the world of nations. We began the task of rebuilding this wonderful land, to make it one in which all inhabitants would be happy and proud.
However in doing so we still have to grapple with the reality of the legacy of our past. Back in 1964 former President Nelson Mandela said, "The lack of human dignity experienced by Africans is the direct result of the policy of white supremacy. White supremacy implies black inferiority. Legislation designed to preserve white supremacy entrenches this notion. Menial tasks in South Africa are invariably performed by Africans.
When anything has to be carried or cleaned, the white man will look around for an African to do it for him, whether the African is employed by him or not. Because of this sort of attitude, whites tend to regard Africans as a separate breed.
They do not look upon them as people with families of their own; they do not realize that they have emotions - that they fall in love like white people do, that they want to be with their wives and children like white people want to be with theirs; that they want to earn enough money to support their families properly, to feed and clothe them and send them to school. And what 'house-boy' or 'garden boy' or labourer can ever hope to do this?"
Madam Speaker, I believe that some of these manifestations of racism he spoke about exist today as they did in 1964 and in 1994. We must not underestimate the deep psychological damage that this ideology caused.
The incidents of racism reported in our media are not isolated occurrences, they are part of a deeper mindset.
The racism experience persists today when Black work-seekers are rudely told to ask Mandela to give them jobs. It persists when the private sector is perceived to be a white domain and black presence is tolerated as a tokenism of impotent appointments that mock affirmative action policies.
It is fuelled when it is said that black management in the public service equals inefficiency, corruption and a lowering of standards.
It is entrenched when some political leaders visibly follow these old racial patterns in speech, style and practice. This is hardly consistent with our anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-discriminatory Constitution. It is at odds with the post-apartheid resolve for reconciliation and nation building.
Madam Speaker, the problem we face in this country was aptly articulated by President Mbeki on 29 May 1998, when he noted that South Africa is a country of two nations. He characterised the 'nations" as follows:-
"One of these nations is white, relatively prosperous, regardless of gender or geographic dispersal. It has ready access to a developed economic, physical, educational, communication and other infrastructure.
This enables it to argue that, except for the persistence of gender discrimination against women, all members of this nation have the possibility to exercise their right to equal opportunity, the development opportunities to which the Constitution of 1993 committed our country.
"The second and larger nation of South Africa is Black and poor, with the worst affected being women in the rural areas, the black rural population in general and the disabled. This nation lives under conditions of a grossly underdeveloped economic, physical, education, communication and other infrastructure.
It has virtually no possibility to exercise what, in reality, amounts to a theoretical right to equal opportunity, with that right being equal within this black nation only to the extent that it is equally incapable of realisation."
We need to accept that taking steps to redress the injustices of the past and transforming our society is necessary for the consolidation of our democracy.
We need to ensure that in our homes, schools and neighbourhoods we inculcate a new value system that respects people for who they are and not the race group we want to assign them to.
An open and honest debate on the problem of racism would enable a new consciousness to emerge, and would create an environment where we would intensify anti-racism awareness in our schools, churches and especially in our media which plays a critical role in shaping our view of our world.
As we were united in 1955 when we drew up the Freedom Charter, we need indeed to unite in action for change now. The future still looks as bright as it did to Chief Albert Luthuli when he wrote in 1960 "Personally, whatever the difficulties, I see hope only in an undivided democratic South Africa. The difficulties are not insuperable if all concerned would approach them with a spirit of goodwill and realism and an unqualified respect for truth."
Madam Speaker, we shall intensify our campaign against racism by declaring this decade a decade for national mobilisation against racism.
In closing, allow me once more to use the words of Chief Albert Luthuli, "There, in embryo, was a portrayal of my new South Africa, a company of men and women of goodwill, yearning to begin work on the building of a structure both permanent and real. Indeed they have already begun."
I thank you.