Honourable Mayor Mondli Gungubele and Speaker of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality
MMCs for Transport Dr Bheki Shongwe
Former Mayor Amos Masondo and esteemed members of the CPG
Representatives of the Media, particularly Ms Yvonne Kgame, representing the Group CEO of the SABC
Officials from SANRAL and the department
Ladies and gentlemen.
It is a great pleasure to stand before you to unveil the flag that has been so generously restored by the Citizens in Partnership with Government (CPG). The CPG represents a group of patriotic business people who believe that it needs to hold hands with government to improve the lives of our people and to promote our country.
Today’s event is more than an unveiling on some road in our province. We are in fact honouring our flag - our national symbol. More importantly, we are recollecting the profound contribution to our liberation struggle of one of our national icons, the late Albertina Sisulu. And we are doing so on the eve of the commemoration of the June 1976 students’ uprising.
This restoration project has consumed 3 500 litres of paint. It would not have been possible without the kind sponsorship of Promac that provided the paint; Coastal Hire from Alberton that sponsored the generator and compressor; Mr Cobus Rossouw who daily transported the equipment to this site; and a band of dedicated workers led by Barend le Grange, who painstakingly cleared this site of weeds and completed this beautiful paintwork.
This flag, which is roughly the size of three rugby fields, now lies as a national landmark. During my primary school days, the apartheid flag was hoisted annually on the 31 May, known then as Republic Day. To most of us it was a meaningless exercise, we felt no emotional affinity to a piece of cloth in orange, white and blue.
That changed for me one day in May 1980, during our student protest at the University of the Witwatersrand. Led by the Black Students’ Society, we had embarked on a boycott of classes in solidarity with hundreds of thousands of “Coloured” and “Indian” school students who were protesting against an unequal and racist education system.
After a series of feisty speeches that day, we embarked on a procession through the university complex. As we approached the steps of the Great Hall, someone pulled out the apartheid flag and in a split second it was set alight. The crowd was stirred into a frenzy of sorts, with hundreds of students dancing and singing around the burning piece of cloth and hundreds more trying to get a glimpse of it being shredded into pieces.
In the midst of this commotion, a white student got into the fray and tried to salvage the apartheid flag. He was pushed and shoved like a rugby ball, assaulted, and finally rescued by the university security. I knew then, that he was prepared to die for his flag. Equally, there were black students who were prepared to risk their lives to burn a flag that symbolised their oppression. In that instant, the symbolic meaning and emotive power of a nation’s flag dawned on me.
Today, we are gathered here as proud South Africans – black and white - to restore our symbol; our national flag. I want most sincerely to thank the CPG for helping us to do so. Our Premier, Nomvula Mokonyane, reminded us in her State of the Province Address in 2011 that nation-building and developing a national identity is fundamental in our young democracy. She said, “We need to invest resources in building our heritage for the future generation so that we become a proud nation.”
The Gauteng Provincial Government, therefore, launched a programme to distribute the national flag and national orders to all schools, libraries and other public buildings to promote patriotism and an understanding of the meaning of our national symbols. Many of the objectives of the Citizens in Partnership with Government are consistent with this goal.
The CPG’s purpose, inter alia, is to initiate projects that would support the government’s efforts to improve the quality of life of South African citizens; to encourage patriotism among South Africans; and to help build a positive perception of, and love for, the country. The restoration of this flag gives tangible meaning and expression to this vision.
Our flag represents the pride, hope and aspirations of all the people of our country. It is a symbol of the sacrifices made by so many men and women to make our non-racial and non-sexist democracy possible. Therefore, the restoration of this flag is a poignant moment for all of us. And we pay tribute to all those who made it possible for us to hoist our flag with a sense of national pride.
It would not be out of place if I move from the collective to singling out an individual, namely Albertina Sisulu, whose sacrifices, love and effable personality represents the pride, honour and dignity that the South African flag represents. It is in her honour that the Department of Roads and Transport and SANRAL re-named the R21 extending on to the R24 as the Albertina Sisulu highway.
Albertina Sisulu’s political activism spanned over fifty years. Her involvement in the liberation struggle was intertwined with that of the ANC, the Federation of South African Women, Umkhonto weSizwe, and the United Democratic Front. She rubbed shoulders with giants such as Oliver Tambo and former President Nelson Mandela, who remain every moment in our thoughts and prayers.
But I remember her best as a fellow member of Parliament. She was among the first stalwarts that came to parliament in 1994. It was my privilege to serve as an MP together with her in our first democratically elected parliament.
What struck me always about both Albertina and Walter Sisulu was their absolute humility.
There was no pretension and sense of self-importance; yet both were great and outstanding leaders. There was no political aloofness and arrogance; only warmth and comradeship. There was no political pettiness, only maturity, deep wisdom and vision. It is these qualities of theirs – humility, selflessness, integrity; self-sacrifice and dedication – that we honour today. This is what we should emulate in our lives.
The Albertina Sisulu highway is more than a strategic part of our road network that links the OR Tambo International Airport with the metropolitan cities of Ekurhuleni, Tshwane and Johannesburg. It provides visitors to our country with their first impressions.
I am pleased that the Department of Roads and Transport, SANRAL and the CPG have embarked on a joint project to beautify the Albertina Sisulu highway. Our vision is to create a scenic route that will stand as a fitting and permanent tribute to a gentle giant in our struggle, Albertina Sisulu.
This occasion must signpost the renewal of our commitment to keep alive the memory of Albertina Sisulu. It must serve as a reminder to our youth that our struggle for freedom was led by people with real depth of character, personality and great sense of humanity.
As we restored this flag, we must restore our faith in our people to build a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa. What better welcome can we give to the visitors arriving from abroad to our country then to remind them that we honour and hold in high esteem all those who gave us our freedom.
