Programme director, Cde Mac Maharaj
Members of the Monty Naicker Commemoration Committee
Our Veterans
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
On behalf of our President, Cde Jacob Zuma, and the freedom-loving people of South Africa, we are greatly honoured to be invited and to officially open the historic 100th Year Commemoration Exhibition in honour of a veteran, stalwart, unifier, patriot, daring activist and pioneer leader of the Natal Indian Congress, Cde Monty Naicker.
The Monty Naicker Commemoration Committee, launched in June 2010, in the 100th year of Dr Monty Naicker’s birth, has made it possible for us to recount this crucial history. This nation-building initiative supports strongly all efforts directed at reclaiming our history of united struggles against racism, sexism, exploitation and all other forms of marginalisation.
Remembering the pivotal role of activists like Dr Monty Naicker in the development of South African society truly helps us reclaim and preserve our shared history and long walk to freedom. It helps us understand and deeply appreciate the non-racial, national and democratic nature and character of our liberation struggle.
Rituals of remembering make our heroes an integral and indelible component of our collective memory. Consciousness of how they paved the way for our freedom forever emboldens us to carry the flame of change from where these pioneers of nationhood left off.
It is only by preserving the heroic history of our people that we can best appreciate our achievements as a nation better to teach our children and nation to defend and advance our national development agenda. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said: “Nations are built through sharing experiences, memories, a history” (Cited in MONACC’s 1st e-letter, 2010).
Initiatives like this educational exhibition, well-timed to coincide with the 150th Anniversary of the Arrival of Indians in South Africa, go a long way in uniting the nation and building social cohesion. From these historical landmarks, we come to grips with the value and priceless contribution of the peoples of the continent and the world in liberating South Africa.
These events must therefore show us the folly of xenophobic violence that recently reared its ugly head on our lovely shores.
I am raising the problem of xenophobia precisely because it is one of those social ills militating against our efforts aimed at reclaiming and implanting a non-racial footprint. Related evils include deep-seated hatred, the persistence of racism and cut-throat struggles over scarce resources.
The Indian people have contributed greatly to our freedom, like other freedom-loving people of Africa and the world. Beyond doubt, they have demonstrated what theories on migration globally have highlighted regarding the diversity and entrepreneurial culture which migration brings to any country (ANC Strategy and Tactics, 2010 NGC).
MONACC has given us a chance to pay our respect to Dr Naicker and many others who have made it possible for us to dismantle apartheid. On behalf of our people and country, we pay tribute to Monty Naicker and all the activists of the 1946 Passive Resistance Campaign and Defiance Campaign of 1952.
United in struggle, these national heroes and heroines, across the race, gender and class divide, laid the foundation for the congress movement which some in our country tried unsuccessfully to desecrate by unceremoniously and deceitfully usurping its name.
This goes to show the importance of reclaiming our history by remembering our pioneers and forerunners – lest we forget where we coming from, thus allowing others shamelessly to mystify and distort our heroic national history.
In a June 1996 address marking the 50th Anniversary of the 1946 Passive Resistance Campaign, former President Nelson Mandela recalled correctly that “the Passive Resistance Campaign initiated united action against oppression”.
He further reminded us that, “In 1947 Dr Xuma of the ANC, Dr Naicker of the Natal Indian Congress and Dr Dadoo of the Transvaal Indian Congress signed what later came to be known as the ‘doctors pact’ and committed their organisations to a future of united action.”
It is these campaigns that led to and laid the foundation for the historic People’s Congress that gave us the Freedom Charter, on 26 June 1955 – a people’s charter which, like the Passive Resistance Campaign and the Defiance Campaign did much to teach us about the essence and potency of voluntarism.
The 1946 Passive Resistance Campaign against the ‘Ghetto Act’ which was meant to restrict occupation and ownership of land by Indians boosted the articulation of the national question in South Africa. It was a resounding success in united mass mobilisation across the colour line.
With the South African Indian Congress carrying the legitimate grievances of Indians beyond the country’s borders, the campaign further gave impetus to the international character of our struggle for freedom and democracy.
It is truly our honour to open the towering photographic exhibition capturing pivotal moments in our national history.
Accordingly, we join the Committee in paying tribute to those among us who took part in the 1946 Passive Resistance Campaign. Unreservedly we support and encourage the Monty Naicker Commemoration Committee’s endeavour to identify and honour all 2 000 passive resisters and all 8 500 defiers.
Using memory as a weapon and remembering that nation-building is an ongoing process and not a once-off event, we must work together, regardless of race, gender or class, until we have realised our noble vision of building a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa, free of poverty and deprivation.
Only this way can we all create a South Africa belonging to all who live in it, united in our diversity, as envisaged in the Freedom Charter. Like Dr Monty Naicker who helped in laying the foundation for a new South Africa, all of us have a historic duty to contribute in building a better Africa and a better world.
Lastly, Dr Monty Naicker’s message of unity in action, delivered at the ANC’s 43rd National Congress, in 1954, is very relevant in tackling current challenges of the national democratic revolution. He said, “The African National Congress has come of age and, with its present leadership, no democrat in South Africa should have any hesitation in making common cause with the African National Congress for the achievement of democracy.”
It is this legacy and common vision that must help us rally all our people behind a common growth and development path in the forthcoming 2011 local government elections. United in action, like the passive resisters of the 1940s, we can build responsive, accountable and effective local government.
Aluta continua!
The struggle continues!
