S Ndebele: Launch of Albert Luthuli Commemorative Events

27 February 2007

All protocol observed,

Forty years ago this year, a hero of our people departed for the great
yonder. Today we are launching the Albert Luthuli Commemorative Events. This is
in order to reconfirm to ourselves and the world that Chief Luthuli's legacy
remains etched in the collective memories of all who cherish the democratic
ideal. In this vein we are here to say that Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli's
lives!

We make this journey standing in awe of the greatness to which Chief Albert
Luthuli was able to rise in his life time. We are content that he made those
sacrifices and strides in order that we and generations to come could live in
peace and security as ensured by the ushering in of democracy in 1994.

In the political veins of our free country today courses the blood that
Chief Luthuli and those of his ilk shed both metaphorically and physically so
that the march to freedom changed into a trot and the trot into a gallop.

When we shine a prism of light on the life of Chief Luthuli we can see in it
clear visions of ourselves on the way to a truly free South Africa. A truly
free South Africa is one in which beyond the right to a ballot, all our people
hold high the promise for economic and personal security.

Our people remain part of our great dream today. This is because in exile,
prison, the townships, villages and suburbs of our country, our people were the
proverbial push which turned the elephant around and dealt a decisive blow to
apartheid.

In his political and personal life Chief Luthuli embodies the South African
dream. This dream is the hope for freedom that kept many of us alive in times
of great personal challenge. The dream lies in the securing of peace and
security in the face of apparently insurmountable state sponsored violence. The
South African dream lies in the building of one united, non-racial and
non-sexist country out of racially disparate groups plagued by notions of
racial and patriarchal superiority. The South African dream is also the dream
of Africa. It is that of the African Renaissance. The African Renaissance dusts
out of the quagmire of colonial wastage, a continent that can stand tall and
assume its rightful place in the world.

We all acknowledge that there is nothing natural or exclusive about our now
celebrated disposition towards non-violence and a peaceful solution to our
challenges. Our unique political circumstance taught us the value of living
together. Through centuries of struggle against colonialism and apartheid we
realised the extent to which human beings are able to descend.

We saw it. We lived it. We did not like to visit it on our greatest
enemies.

When we went to the polls in 1994 we had decided that as Martin Luther King
Jr taught us, we had to learn to live together as human beings or perish
together as fools.

It is our view that by force of his example Chief Luthuli left an indelible
mark on the psyche of our people. From the grave Chief Luthuli guided the
negotiators of our final political settlement because of his unwavering
commitment to non-violence as a permanent solution to apartheid. Like many of
the negotiators he was banned, threatened with prison, harassed and generally
persecuted in his own country.

As President Thabo Mbeki has said before, today many people across the world
appreciate the fact that the final stage of our liberation was marked by
freedom fighters and oppressors sitting down at the same table:

"This was to hammer out a settlement that buried the apartheid demon and
established a society based on the ideals of equality, non-racialism,
non-sexism and democracy. Chief Albert Luthuli had cherished this outcome
throughout his lifetime. Undoubtedly it is therefore part of the legacy that he
bequeathed to our country and people."

Last year we commemorated the adoption of Satyagraha by Mahatma Gandhi. We
believe that Chief with people such as United States (US) civil rights leader
Dr Martin Luther King Jr, owed much of his unwavering commitment to
non-violence to Mahatma Gandhi's teachings. Chief Luthuli was also a deeply
committed Christian. Albert Luthuli was deeply religious and during his time at
Adam's College he became a lay preacher. His Christian beliefs acted as a
foundation for his approach to political life in South Africa at a time when
many of his contemporaries were calling for a more militant response to
apartheid. He could not find any biblical justification for the oppression of
one by another and believed like Dr King, that injustice anywhere was a threat
to justice everywhere.

We are thus pleased that as a result of our commitment, non-violence has
become the only viable option in resolving the challenges of our time. This is
not only in South Africa but in many parts of the world. Thus the nations of
the world expect us to deploy this commitment as we take our seat at the United
Nations Security Council (UNSC) this year.

Today our negotiators are crisscrossing areas such as Northern Ireland, the
Middle East, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and elsewhere
armed with the simple message of peace and negotiations. This is a far cry from
where we were during apartheid but it is a legacy we owe in no small part to
Chief Luthuli.

Chief Albert Luthuli was President General of the African National Congress
(ANC) from 1952 till his death in 1967. The 1950s witnessed the historic
process of the independence of Africans from colonialism and the rollback of
the outcomes produced by the European Scramble for Africa. The Suez crisis of
1956 was an indication that the gunboat diplomacy of a previous era was no
longer an option for the Western powers. The independence of Africa gathered
momentum, when first Ghana became free in 1957, then Guinea in 1958 and
subsequently a number of African countries gained their independence. Chief
Luthuli was himself not born in South Africa but in Bulawayo, Southern
Rhodesia, the son of a Seventh Day Adventist missionary.

The year in which we held our first democratic elections would have been 27
years since the death of Chief Albert Luthuli. Former President Nelson Mandela
was in prison for 27 years. This year, in 2007, as a member of the UN Security
Council we have taken our place alongside the nations of the world. It is 40
years since Chief Luthuli died.

In 1994 Chief Luthuli's home was proclaimed a museum. This was in
recognition of the role it came to play as a meeting place for domestic and
international leaders. Notable among those who travelled to the Luthuli house
was US attorney-general Senator Robert Kennedy, in 1966.

The Chief Albert Luthuli Commemorative Event will look at the role that
Chief Albert Luthuli played in the building of human rights, peace, security
and race relations in South Africa and the world. In 1961 Chief Luthuli
received the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize because of his commitment to peace and
non-racialism in South Africa and the world.

As early as 1962 in a joint statement with Dr King, Chief Luthuli called for
economic and arms sanctions against South Africa in the light of Universal
Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN in 1957. The statement drew a
picture of possible outcomes in the event that a peaceful solution was not
found to apartheid. The two leaders offered one simple solution when they
declared:

"So there exists another alternative and the only solution which represents
sanity, transition to a society based upon equality for all without regard to
colour."

We have already established solid relations with the people of Atlanta
around the friendships of Dr King and Chief Luthuli. Our province was
represented during the Martin Luther King Jr birthday celebrations in Atlanta,
US in January this year. There will be reciprocal invitations extended to the
people of Atlanta Georgia to take part in the Chief Luthuli commemorative
events during the year.

We went to Atlanta in January because we believe it is important that the
bonds of friendship between Atlanta and KwaZulu-Natal, we solidify the
relationship between African people in the US and the rest of the Diaspora and
the continent of Africa.

We will also remember Chief Luthuli as a traditional leader. In November
1952 the apartheid government removed him from the chieftainship of the
Abase-Makolweni tribe in the Groutville Mission. Luthuli's position as chief
was never hereditary. He was democratically elected to it by the people of
Groutville in 1935.

Chief Luthuli's thus saw his removal from this post as one of the many acts
by the government aimed at subverting democracy wherever in their view it
reared its ugly head. It was one of the many acts which sought to broaden
apartheid's grip on our people.

As a result even this early in his political career, Chief Luthuli, a self
declared moderate was forced to examine the wisdom of confronting an
increasingly repressive State using only non-violent means.

He had this to say in his statement, the road to freedom is via the
cross:

"In this effort I always pursued what liberal minded people rightly regarded
as the path of moderation. Over this great length of time I have, year after
year, gladly spent hours of my time with such organisations of the church and
its various agencies such as the Christian Council of South Africa (CCSA), the
Joint Council of Europeans and Africans and the now defunct Native
Representative Council (NRC)."

"Who will deny that 30 years of my life have been spent knocking in vain,
patiently, moderately and modestly at a closed and barred door? What have been
the fruits of my many years of moderation? Has there been any reciprocal
tolerance or moderation from the government be it Nationalist or United Party?
No! On the contrary, the past 30 years have seen the greatest number of laws
restricting our rights and progress until today we have reached a stage where
we have almost no rights at all."

Inkosi Luthuli used his moral authority in the world and his position as
President General of the ANC to pave the road towards the peaceful resolution
of the political impasse in apartheid South Africa. Today we must acknowledge
that we owe our being to the many selfless sacrifices Inkosi Luthuli and his
generation made so we could be free.

Former President Nelson Mandela, himself a Nobel Laureate, described Luthuli
as a "colossus" and "foot soldier of our people who chose persecution and
taught us the lesson that real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the
freedom of their people."

In June which is 'youth month,' Inkosi Luthuli will be remembered as an
educator of important values such as self respect, dignity, respect for
authority and an understanding of the precise role that one has to play in
society. In 1908 he was sent to his ancestral home at Groutville, Natal where
he went to the mission school. Having first trained as a teacher at Edendale,
near Pietermaritzburg, Luthuli attended additional courses at Adam's College
(in 1920). He went on to become part of the college staff. He remained at the
college until 1935. He taught for many years in various schools and was given
an honorary rectorship by the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom (UK).

It is quite possible that 16 June 1976 the youth in defying the education
authorities and taking to the streets were taking lessons from Inkosi Luthuli.
The protesting children were not violent and sought to effect change peacefully
but unfortunately were met with a violent response.

July, the month in which Inkosi Luthuli died, will be marked by a lecture
delivered by President Thabo Mbeki on various aspects of the late President
General of the ANC's life. The lecture will look at the different complexities
that made Inkosi Luthuli.

In August the month in which the country celebrates Women's Day,
KwaZulu-Natal will commemorate Izintombi zeNgcugce who stood up for the rights
of women and girls to choose their partners. This legacy sits well with Inkosi,
September which is heritage month, the legacy of Inkosi Luthuli will be
examined by looking at the institution of traditional leadership of which he
was a part. This is notwithstanding the fact that his was not hereditary but
that the community asked him in 1935 to become a chief. This will hopefully
also help us look at the various models of traditional leadership and the
challenges faced by this institution today and how to deal with these.

As a province we are serious about economic development. We have identified
the "Agrarian Revolution" as a key component of our economic growth strategy.
Inkosi Luthuli was a farmer and agriculturalist. In looking at this aspect of
his life we will open the debate on how best we are meeting our stated
intentions of using agriculture as the basis of our economic growth.

From November to December we will look at the role of the family in dealing
with the many scourges we face today. These include violence of any form
against women and children.

We hope that through the programme we will also recall Chief Luthuli's call
that those who sacrificed, need to be rewarded by the commitment of those who
benefit from the liberation of this country. He said:

"It is a day of dedication because Africans, remembering the past and
bearing in mind their duty to the future, dedicate themselves afresh to work
for the objectives for which they made the supreme sacrifice. Not for nothing
did they do it, should be our watchword."

We are here to make sure that Chief Luthuli did not go through all the
sacrifices he did for nothing. We are here to declare that Nelson Mandela did
not go through the sacrifices he did for nothing. We are here to recommit
ourselves to the values of freedom, family, hard work, dedication, peace and
prosperity that Luthuli stood for.

I thank you!

Issued by: Office of the Premier, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
27 February 2007