Address by the Premier of Limpopo, Ambassador Chupu Mathabatha on the occasion of the Dzata Commemoration Heritage, held at Dzata Heritage Site, in Vhembe
Programme director;
Thovele Khosi Vho Toni Mphephu Ramabulana;
Members of the Executive Council;
Executive Mayor and Mayors of our local municipalities;
Councillors representing various municipalities;
Traditional leaders and Traditional healers present here;
Members of the Media;
Ladies and gentlemen:
It gives me great pleasure to be with you here today at this important and yet sacred heritage site.
I comment His Majesty King Toni Mphephu Ramabulana for organising this event, and for keeping the rich cultural heritage of Dzata alive in our memories and in particular in the memories of our younger generation.
We thank you Thovhele for guiding all of us to not take the rich knowledge about our history, culture and traditions to our graves.
Programme Director;
This important commemorative event is taking place during this month of September which is also known as a Black Consciousness Month.
During this month we remember an iconic figure of our liberation struggle, Steven Bantu Biko who was brutally murdered on the 12 September 1977 by the apartheid security police.
Biko was a founding member of the South African Student Organisation (SASO), an exclusively black student organisation that stressed the need for black South Africans to liberate themselves psychologically and to become self-reliant in order to fundamentally change South Africa.
Steve Biko taught us that by Black Consciousness we should mean ‘the cultural and political revival of an oppressed people’.
In commemorating the Dzata heritage, we are therefore as Black people reviving ourselves from the cultural oppression as Steve Biko would have wanted us to.
Programme Director;
The history of Dzata is the story about struggle, bravery, mystery and conquest.
We learn from history that this is the place which for many decades served as a launch pad for early struggles against colonialist who sought to take our land and deprive our people of their God-given wealth.
It is also a place which for many decades served to preserve the rich history of the Vhavenda people and played host to such great leaders as Dimbanyika and others.
As former Premier Sello Moloto said in 2005 during the Opening of this site as a heritage site:
‘We have got no doubt, whatsoever that the heritage site of Dzata will continue to inspire our efforts of nation building and national reconciliation as an integral part of our transformation effort. We believe that by locating heritage at the centre of development we are bringing in the most important ingredient for success of our people in their forward march to a better life in tourism’.
Indeed Dzata is significant not only as a heritage site but also presents an opportunity for the unique opportunity to showcase our province, our rich and varied cultural heritage and our friendly and generous people to the people of the world.
Programme Director;
As we celebrate this important cultural heritage, the question that we should all ask ourselves is whether we are doing enough to take our younger generation along with us.
Do our youth understand the significance of preserving our cultural heritage?
The history of Dzata for an example, though well documented, I doubt if the importance of this place is deep-rooted in the minds of our youthful population.
With your permission Mr Programme director, I would like to focus my attention now on the significance of a day such as this for our youth.
Speaking about the importance of days such as this, President Jacob Zuma had this to say: “As South Africans from all walks of life, regardless of the role we played in history or what we believed in then, have a responsibility to respect and acknowledge the past, celebrate the present and build the future together”
I am in full agreement with the president because it is only through the study and acknowledgement of the past that our children will understand who they are.
The Black pride ideas of Steve Biko should and must resonate within our youth.
Our cultural heritage is the biggest inheritance we can ever leave for our children.
If we do not teach this history, someone from somewhere will come and teach it for us. He will teach it from his own point of view to serve his own interest.
I am deliberately focusing my interaction with you on the youth because as government we are troubled by the fact that our children are turning their back on their past.
Most of us prefer to define ourselves in terms of where we are going and forget everything about where we come from. It is such painful observations that compel one to be sympathetic to the call to make history a compulsory learning area for our children at school.
No matter how many degrees one may have, you remain illiterate if you do not know your own history.
Programme Director;
Our concerns are not unfounded.
If we are not careful, or if we do not act on these concerns we will lose our identity, and the struggles of activists such as Steve Biko would have been betrayed.
If we are not careful our indigenous names will disappear and all our children will bear foreign names.
Our languages are facing a real possibility of extinction; very soon, if we do not act swiftly, we will have no young person speaking Tshivenda or Sepedi. This is so because we are all excited to take our children to those schools that do not teach our indigenous language and we think that is cool.
It can never be cool for a child to lose his identity; it is actually a tragedy of unimaginable proportions.
We should be reminded today of the urgency to reject this wholesale importation of foreign cultures and traditions.
Steve Biko died so that we can embrace without shame our God-given dark complexion, he did not die so that our children can paint themselves with so-called skin lighteners, as if they wish to escape from their Black skin.
From his life our children should be able to understand that it is actually cool to speak your own language or to speak English with your deep Tshivenda accent.
Our colourful traditional attire should instil a sense of pride in us – sadly, we only put them on once a year during the national heritage day.
We have even forgotten the rich sound of our traditional music because of the domination of foreign sounds on our airwaves.
We suffer from preventable diseases because we have abandoned easily accessible and healthy traditional food.
Programme Director;
Once again, this important day of commemoration and celebration, I would like to say - let us sing and dance. Let us embrace our culture and heritage and be proud of who we are.
On behalf of our government, I wish you a beautiful and fulfilled day.
Thank you. Ria livhuwa.
