15 September 2006
Programme director
Executive mayor/s
Traditional and religious leaders
Municipal managers
LED members
Distinguished guests
Esteemed delegates
Comrades and friends
Ladies and gentlemen
Lotjhani, sanibonani, dumelang, ndimatsheloni, abusheni, molweni, good
morning, goei more!
It is an honour and a privilege to address you on this august occasion,
which is unequivocally another milestone taken by my department to be
registered in the history of the province of the rising sun. It is therefore
with gratitude and a sense of pride in our province that we gather in this
fashion at this Cultural Industries and Heritage Summit during the Heritage
month in the Age of Hope, celebrating our living heritage.
"Living Heritage", ladies and gentlemen like any other human phenomenon
predates the imperial and colonial era. It was and still is a lived experience
of the various communities at various epochs. Living Heritage is a totality of
their experiences: the manner in which they deal with birth, the coming of age,
maturity, marriage, oldage and death; the manner in which they celebrate these
stages of human development; the manner in which they deal with poverty and
destitution, how they build their economies, how they create their stability,
how they coexist with other communities as well as their natural environment,
how they narrate their stories, how they sing and dance, etc.
It for this reason that the Honourable Premier TSP Makwetla took the
initiative in supporting the heritage study that seeks to rediscover, and in
the process rewrite the history of the province with a view to rescue and bring
out in the open what is left of those African cultures that have endured
systematic repression at the hands of former colonisers. It is therefore
important at this august occasion that we share as a department, stakeholders
and the people of the province in the maxim that "for a very long time, we
lived our lives as a tale that has been told from an alien perspective in an
alien language, and that it is now time, sekunjalo, kenako to retell our
stories from our own point of view."
The kind of living heritage that we have today is part of the inheritance
from common ancestry, from time immemorial. Our living heritage ranges from
oral traditions, oral histories, rituals, indigenous knowledge systems that
have been preserved; that have undergone changes and thus have removed or added
some new dimensions due to constant interaction among the various communities
of the world that originally were separated by space and time distances. This
interaction has been further enhanced by global cosmopolitanism that has been
brought about by the advent of telecommunications, increased travel and
tourism, thus reducing the distance among various communities.
As we entered this new millennium we boldly proclaimed it an 'African
Century'. We did so renewing our optimism in the African Renaissance. As South
Africa, and Mpumalanga in particular, we presents a model of a cosmopolitan
society that is comprised of rich and diverse cultural heritages, hence the
concept of the Rainbow Nation. It is therefore incumbent upon government to
create an enabling environment for the expression and exhibition of various
forms of living heritage of all population groups towards 2010 and beyond,
starting during this heritage month.
It is important that this should happen in the manner that supports our
ideals of a non-racial, non-sexist, multilingual and multi-cultural society. It
should also happen within the context of trying to promote the sharing of
cultural experiences among various cultural groups, because it is through that
sharing and mutual appreciation of our common and diverse cultural heritage
that we shall achieve national reconciliation and social cohesion. I am
pleased, ladies and gentlemen, that you have started doing that as from
yesterday and still continue to share your cultural experiences through various
presentations and deliberations. At this point in time, Programme Director,
allow me to express my sincere gratitude to all of your contributions and
commitment thus far.
In conclusion, efforts to rediscover, honour and protect our past heritage
are imperative, but it will take the concerted efforts of all South Africans,
including you and me, in various ways to be passionate and patriotic in order
to realise these efforts. In return, as the offspring of this land, not only do
we gain financially, but most importantly we become a nation with a history
which is the soul of our forefathers, and an example to future generations.
Last but not least Programme Director, allow me to announce and invite all
of you in the Age Of Hope to come and join the rest of the province in
celebrating our living heritage as we unveil the Gert Sibande Cenotaph on the
24th September 2006 at AJ Swanepoel Stadium in Ermelo, Msukaligwa Municipality.
In the words and spirit of the Cenotaph Epitaph "We, the people of Mpumalanga
Province, South Africa are humbled by the supreme price that our heroes and
heroines paid during the prosecution of our struggle for democracy, nonracism,
human rights, gender equality and justice for all. We pledge ourselves to
continue the struggle for the realisation of our people's cherished vision: A
better life for all."
Ngiyathokoza
Issued by: Mpumalanga Provincial Government
15 September 2006
