Pretoria 21 August 2001
Honourable Deputy President, Mr Jacob Zuma
Executive Mayor, Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa,
Distinguished guests
And the community of Tshwane
The sadness and astonishment displayed by many people throughout the world at the sudden eruption of ethnic, racial and religious conflicts around the globe is indicative of the extent to which the human spirit is pulverised by the level of intolerance regardless of the reasons. Every person had hoped for a world free of ethnic dissensions, racial conflicts and religious intolerance, in the belief that all these were being rapidly superseded.
Baal Shem Tov once remarked " Forgetfulness leads to exile, while remembrance is the secret of redemption". His remarks are illustrated quite vividly in our struggle for justice, peace democracy and non-racialism in our Motherland and without sounding arrogant, we believe we have something that the world can learn from us. Perhaps it is more the reason why the United Nations decided to bring the 3RD International Conference on Racism in South Africa. Nevertheless, the huge challenge still remains that we as South Africans each one of us must deepen and cement the gains of our struggles.
Lest we forget, the legacy of apartheid brought about rampant poverty, landlessness, homelessness and very sharp class contradictions in our country. This also gave rise to job reservations exclusively for whites as a means of protecting a specific race and class. Never again shall this prevail.
I feel honoured to be part of this historic ceremony today, to highlight tolerance, not just in South Africa, but throughout the world. Our Constitution under the Bill of Rights provides that every individual has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law and no one should be discriminated against as a result of their race. It also highlights that every human being deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, despite their race or whether they are citizens of this country or not.
This ceremony is aimed at ensuring a broader mobilisation in dealing with the cultural diversity in our country, through tolerance. It also paves a way to the coming World Conference Against Racism in Durban in September. Central to this conference is the struggle to achieve respect for human dignity in the form of human rights.
In our quest for a just society, it behoves all of us to play an active role in obliterating the scourge of racism the world over. It is worthy of note, that in spite of all the gains that have been articulated in our constitution since the advent of our democracy, we still are enmeshed in our turbulent past. As our President once said, " To take it forward, we must extricate it from that past of race and gender discrimination and oppression, of the marginalisation of its youth and of inadequate care and concern for the needs and demands of the handicapped and of our mature citizens".
We must support our President when he highlighted in his budget speech earlier this year that "We stand out as a country that must succeed to create a non-racial society and thus address the important issue of the defeat of racism globally. This must be expressed both in the defeat of racist consciousness and in the reconstruction of our country to end the racial disparities we have all inherited".
The government has been playing a very crucial role when it comes to fighting racism, xenophobia, discrimination and intolerance in the country. Since 1994 efforts have been made to place our country on a path of fundamental social transformation, through policies and legislation criminalising racism, to enable us to achieve transformation.
The South African Human Rights Commission last year undertook an investigation to look at media and racism in an effort to fight racial discrimination. It became very clear that the South African media have been perpetuating racial intolerance and discrimination either inadvertently or by design. However, we need to correct the discourse by acknowledging the past through open engagements with racism and by exemplary behaviour of tolerance.
We need to link racism and other forms of intolerance to the questions of poverty and global economic inequalities. The government is working towards the eradication of poverty by putting in place sustainable programmes in order to make sure that they find their own solutions to their economic and social problems. This comes as a mandate received by this government to build a better life for all.
The challenge facing all of us now is to look at ways to combat racism and intolerance in our neighbourhood, our work places, our social places or our schools. We need to engage those who feel that their social positions are being threatened, share views and educate them on the negative effects of intolerance as a result of racism or xenophobia.
It is not the responsibility of the government only to combat racism, intolerance, discrimination, xenophobia and other forms of hatred. But all of us South Africans, black and white, united as a country, we can be in a better position to deal with this monster and show the international world that we are capable of dealing with our problems.
The freedom of the world is dependent upon each country playing its role in a constructive and co-operative sense. We are part of the world and the world is part of us!
Thank You