Programme Director
The leadership of South African Council of Churches (SACC)
MECs present here
Executive Mayors and Mayors present
Traditional Leaders present here
Leaders of different Denominations present here
Congregants from different denominations
Comrades and friends
Today marks the fourth day since President of the Republic, His Excellency Jacob Zuma broke the news of the passing away of our former State President. The government has since declared ten days of mourning that will culminate into the burial of utata Madiba on 15 December 2013.
His mortal remains will be buried at his home village of Qunu where he will join other members of his clan in the presence of his close family members, comrades and friends. In his honour and memory, the country’s flags have been flown at half mast in all government buildings and our embassies across the globe.
Messages of condolences have and continue to be sent to Madiba family, the ANC and the government of South Africa for the loss of the father of the nation and global icon.
These messages of support, some written in the condolence books that are found in different government offices, come from different sections of the population whose lives Mandela touched in one way or another. Nelson Mandela as you know was greatly admired not only in South Africa but throughout the world for his role in bringing down the apartheid and most importantly, for his forgiveness to his erstwhile oppressors. We owe our freedom and democracy to his commitment and resoluteness to selflessly serve his people.
Chairperson of the session
It was his sheer character as a powerful human being and leader that forced many white South Africans to contribute to the process of reconstruction and development of this country. It was his sense of forgiveness after serving 27 years in prison and coming out with no bitterness against his jailers, that made other black South Africans equally forgive their oppressors.
A true revolutionary, a unifier and the leader of our people is indeed no more. His was a life well lived. Through his force of example he managed to persuade the former Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gadaffi to hand over the Lockerbie bombers to the United Nations during his short period as our State President.
Similarly, it was indeed as a result of his own character and strong military background that his own comrades in MK accepted his call for the suspension of the armed struggle. This, as he argued then, was necessary to give the negotiations a chance.
Besides all these attributes Nelson Mandela refused to be compared to or called a saint. He believed that he accomplished all these things not as an individual but as somebody who worked within the ANC leadership collective.
In explaining his dislike for the iconic and indeed ‘Messianic’ status that was attributed to him because of his great efforts to bring together a nation that was deeply divided by Apartheid colonialism, he opined in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom: “That was one of the things that worried me-to be raised to the position of a semi-god-because then you are no longer a human being. I wanted to be known as Mandela, a man with weaknesses, some of which are fundamental, and a man who is committed, but nevertheless sometimes he fails to live up to expectations.”
From this pronouncement we can only appreciate that the country is mourning the death of a towering leader but celebrate his legacy. We are celebrating the legacy of an ordinary human being who was born into the royal family in Qunu in the Eastern Cape but was later shaped by the environment that he found himself in to become such an outstanding revolutionary and tactician par excellence.
Unlike the some of his comrades in the organisation, the African National Congress, who would become great strategists and theoreticians, Mandela excelled in reading the mood of the people. When the need for much more radical programmes to engage the regime were required in the 1950s, Nelson Mandela placed himself at the service of the people by becoming the 1st Volunteer-In-Chief for the Defiance Campaign.
When a peaceful solution to our country’s problems became impossible due to the regime’s intransigence after the banning of all political parties opposed to apartheid and giving its leadership banning orders, it was Nelson Mandela who persuaded his comrades to take up arms and formed MK.
When his organisation, the people’s movement the African National Congress demanded better mechanisms to continue to operate under conditions of illegality, Nelson Mandela took it upon himself to develop the M-Plan that was supposed to assist structures during that time.
When the moment demanded that the liberation movement should engage with the regime on talks to find solution to his country’s problems, it was Madiba who had the preliminary talks with his erstwhile enemies at the risk of being labelled a sell-out by his own comrades.
When the time came to suspend the armed struggle, it was Madiba who led the process in the negotiations and indeed made the formal pronouncement that the ANC has suspended the armed struggle.
Distinguished congregants
A leader of note is indeed no more. You can indeed celebrate a man of great magnanimity and very great moral standing in society. A person whose life has been shaped by the people who worked with him some of them deeply religious and indeed great Christians like the former President of our movement, comrade Oliver Tambo.
This humble person from Qunu was only brought closer to his comrades who even formed part of his family for all the years of revolutionary activism and incarceration by a strong passion to fight injustice and strive to create a new society where people of all races will live together in peace and harmony.
Ladies and gentlemen, Comrades and friends A Colossus indeed no more
We are celebrating the life of one human being whose passion to serve the poor surpassed every other important consideration in his growth and development. It was this strong drive to help the poor that his government adopted a number of programmes such as the building of RDP houses, broadening the social security network to include the young children coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, introduction of free medical care to pregnant women, delivery of water and electricity to the poor to mention just but a few.
Even after having left the government in 1999, after serving only one term as the State President, he would continue to champion different cause for the poor such as the HIV/AIDS campaign where he encouraged the government to provide anti-retroviral drugs to those infected.
In his honour and memory we must make Limpopo a province we are all proud to call home. All social ills, especially acts of maladministration and corruption must become a thing of the past. In this regard, we have begun to make significant inroads in rebuilding the credibility of this provincial government. In our interaction with our people, through outreach programmes of government, they are conveying to us a message of hope about the future.
They sincerely believe that today is better than yesterday, and that tomorrow shall surely be better than today. We share this sentiment with our people because we stand on the shoulders of the giants like Madiba and can clearly see far in the future.
Programme Director
I wish to call upon all churches under the banner of the SACC and those outside to pray for our nation, our people and indeed our government during this difficult time of mourning. We urge the church to hold prayer services throughout the province to pray for Madiba and inculcate a spirit of patriotism amongst its members.
Perhaps in celebrating his life we can only draw comfort from one Madiba’s friends, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, when he said shortly after Madiba’s death: “God was so good to South Africa by giving us Nelson Mandela to be our president at a crucial time in our history. He inspired us to walk the path of forgiveness and reconciliation, and so South Africa did not go up in flames. Thank you God, for this wonderful gift who became a moral colossus, a global icon of forgiveness and reconciliation.”
As the government and people of Limpopo we shall remember you Madiba. We shall follow your example of love and passion for justice. We shall carry on your legacy of delivering services to the people without expecting any material rewards. Ours will be the struggle to improve the lot of the common people.
Tata Madiba, your deeds and actions will remain forever etched in our memories
Fair thee well Tata, fair thee well! Pula!
