Issued by the Presidency
19 May 2002
The Programme Director, Prof. D. Mosoma,
The Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Father Smangaliso Mkhatswa,
Members of the Executive Council of Tshwane,
Councillors of the Metropolitan City of Tshwane,
Religious Leaders,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thank you very much for inviting me to be part of this important Day of Prayer at this capital City of our Country. Although I reside in Soweto, I spend more time in Tshwane in terms of my work than in Johannesburg. As a result, I feel at home here as I do in Johannesburg.
Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending the 90th Birthday celebration of one of the outstanding leaders and icons of the liberation struggle, Mr Walter Sisulu. The theme of the birthday celebration was "Celebrating a Life of Voluntarism and Dedication".
I sat there and listened to moving testimonies about his life, his commitment to the struggle for our liberation, his pain and sacrifices, and the price his wife and Comrade, Albertina Sisulu, together with their children paid.
I sat there and listened to the testimonies of his dedication, voluntarism and his willingness to sacrifice his life for others.
I sat there and watched his frail body. I watched as they assisted him from one point to another, and at times carried him on a wheel chair.
And I could not help it but struggled to hold my tears, overwhelmed by this icon - an embodiment of the pain and scars of our struggle.
I stopped and said to myself, these are the scars and pains that gave birth to the miracle of our freedom, our peace and our new democracy eight years ago.
At the main table where Ntate le Mme Sisulu were located also sat President Thabo Mbeki, U tata uMandela and Mme Tambo. This reminded me of the selfless sacrifices of Ntate Sisulu's prison mates and those of many others. I thought, for instance, of all the Rivonia trialists, of Bram Fischer and Robert Sobukwe. I also thought of those who were brutally killed in detention, like Timol, Mapetla, Biko and Agget.
As I sat here today, I thought that we can only thank God for giving us these and many other leaders, over many years, who were prepared to give their lives for the noble course of justice. Through their lives, pain and suffering they ensured that our new, non-racial and non-sexist democratic society saw the light of day against all odds and forces of deep darkness and evil.
I sat here and thought about the miracle of our transition from an apartheid society to a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society. I also recalled that we needed a right combination of leaders on both sides of the racial divide - at the right time - which was committed to the country and prepared to save it at all costs, including unpopular compromises they had to make.
We, who are privileged to be here today cannot deny that it is the sacrifices of such God-given icons of our struggle and countless others -many of whom we do not know - which has made it possible for us to be able to sit here, together (black and white), at this transforming City of Tshwane, the former, feared capital of the racist apartheid regime, to pray together, (black and white) for our country, for our leaders and for the victims of the new enemies of our freedom. We gather here together to pray for the victims of poverty, infectious diseases (HIV and Aids, TB, Malaria and others), rapists, criminals and corrupt business people and public servants.
(I wish to pause here and ask you to rise and observe a moment of silence for those heroes and heroines who are no more with us, as well as thank God for all those who are still in our midst. ...(moment of silence)... I thank you.)
As we develop the Freedom Park, here at Salvokop, we should remember to go beyond the traditional memorials for 'the Unknown Soldier' to honour as well the 'Unknown Heroes and Heroines of the struggle for liberation'.
This testimony of sacrifice, suffering and pain with all the endurance, bravery and patience, which is a character of the leaders who came before us, must inspire us to boldly face the challenges of our time with all the commitment, dedication and determination to complete the good work they have started and for which paid a heavy price.
In this regard, we must join hands together - religious communities, business, organized labour, community organizations, Government and individual South Africans - to push back the frontiers of poverty, disease and ignorance. We must take it as our responsibility to educate our people, especially the younger generation, about where we come from as a nation and where we are going.
We must join hands together to close and ultimately eliminate the space for rapists, criminals and corrupt businesspersons and public officials to have no room to continue threatening our freedom, growth in the economy and peace. We must take seriously the Moral Regeneration Campaign to help our people to recover from the degradation and moral depravity occasioned by the immoral system of apartheid and the war which issued out of it. I am sure you will agree that religious communities are very critical in this regard.
The Government has a primary responsibility to combat crime and corruption, but governments and laws do not ordinarily change the hearts and minds of the people. It is the religious leaders who are better placed to undertake this task.
We must also join hands together to solidify the new bond of unity between whites and blacks, by deliberately engaging in acts of reconciliation, of creating a new person fit for the new non-racial, non-sexist society, out of the old, which was corrupted by the immoral apartheid system. We must engage in activities to build a new nation out of the old, strengthened by its diversity and decorated by its rainbow colours.
We have already made progress in this regard that, unfortunately, is recognized or noticed mainly by outsiders. During one of our overseas trips one foreigner commented about our delegation. He said that the South African delegation 'looked like the United Nations!' For this we must thank those who maintained the vision of a non-racial society even against all the odds.
But, above all, we must thank God for having helped us to maintain the understanding that all humanity (white and black; Tutsis and Hutus; Jews and Palestinians, etc.) is made in the image of God and all persons are equal before God.
The other lesson we learned from the history of our struggle is that we must never lose hope that we will win against all these negative forces of retrogression. Even when they look overwhelming, we should always remember that the moral force of this noble course we pursue is far much greater than the immoral and corrupt forces of evil.
We must resist any one who would like us to believe that we are worse off than we were during the apartheid times. We must resist the 'return to Egypt' motif! We must resist being so demoralized by the ghastly acts of the rapists, the brutal acts of the criminals and by those who pursue wealth (money) at all costs, including murder and genocide.
We must reject the saying that 'if you cannot beat them join them'! We must reject the 'get rich quickly' ideas, which are pursued even at the expense of our humanity (ubuntu, botho).
We must prepare ourselves for another long haul struggle, which requires the patience, endurance and sacrifices of the icons of the struggle to create a more humane society, a society with higher standards of morality. We must be ready to produce new icons of the new struggle of our time.
A reading of the King Report on business ethics and corporate governance and its expectation for higher ethical standards on 'trust', 'reliability', 'honesty', 'truth' and clean corporate governance convinced me beyond any doubt that a more moral and ethical society is better for the growth of the economy and for bettering the lives of many of our people.
As we prepare ourselves to pray, I invite you to join me and many other South Africans in the campaign to change the material conditions of our people for the better and to engage in a struggle to renew our moral standards to create a better society to live in.
This, as you would know, will require many sacrifices, much suffering and pain.
May God Bless you.
Frank Chikane is a Pastor of the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa (AFM of SA); an Honorary member of the Leadership Forum of the AFM of SA and the Chairperson of the International Council of his church. He is also the Director General in the Presidency and Secretary of the Cabinet.