MEC Dan Kgothule: Address at sod turning ceremony at War Museum Garden of Remembrance

The  speech of the Free State MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Mr Dan Kgothule, on the occasion of the sod-turning ceremony for the Garden of Remembrance for the women and children who died in the concentration camps of the Anglo Boer War and

Minister of Arts and Culture: Mr Paul Mashatile
Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities: Me. Lulu Xingwana.
Premier of the Free State: Mr Ace Magashule
Executive Major of Mangaung Metro: Cllr. Thabo Manyoni
Chairperson of the Council of the War Museum: Dr Jan van der Merwe
Director of the War Museum: Mr Tokkie Pretorius
Program Director
Colleagues
Honoured Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
Comrades

South Africa is a country with such a rich history which is worth celebrating or commemorating. The better part of this history is a painful one, while, on the other hand there are heroic actions of the people of this country that have to be celebrated.

Characterising this history are also wars that were fought on both fronts for the freedom we enjoy today. It would be almost criminal to not recognise the significance of all the chapters in our history, or even ignore certain parts of our history conveniently.

We have come a long way in correcting the wrongs of the past, and as the Department of Arts and Culture it has been one of our quests to strive to bring both the complete written and Oral history to our communities, especially where much of the history of this country was being selectively told, or even left out.

We strove to incorporate into our common heritage many important facts about the history of this country, especially as regard the history of the liberation struggle.

In our efforts to correct the recording and interpretation of our history we have ensured that even the characterisation of the South African War as the Anglo Boer War is corrected and given its full meaning as a liberation struggle against the British Empire and which involved both the Afrikaners and blacks. Unfortunately, many of the magnificent stories of survival and perseverance have been lost due to the non-reporting and non-recording of events and people that played an integral role in that war.

Nowhere is this more pertinent as when it comes to the history of the South African War, where many people forget the role that black South Africans played in this fight for freedom.

Although black South Africans where promised various benefits, like free land and much more by some of the British commanders in exchange for information, this was not enough to convince them, and they fought side by side with the Afrikaner commandos as the war was a unifying factor at the time in South Africa.

However, selective recording has caused many people not to realise the role black South Africans played in the war. Black men fought in the veld alongside their Afrikaner compatriots, tending to horses and loading guns, whilst black women and children were also removed from the farms in the British “Scorched Earth” campaign together with their Afrikaner women folk. Thousands of black people were taken to concentration camps, as were their white counterparts. We will never deny the sacrifices made and recorded, but we must also remember the untold stories and fallen members of this beautiful country, irrespective of creed, colour or race.

During the proceedings of this event today, we will get to hear and see more about this history as we listen to various speakers, watch the video that will be played to us as well as during the museum tour that will be undertaken as part of this programme.

Program Director, as the Free State we are proud to be the home to this kind of a museum which depicts such a rich, although very painful history of our land. As the Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation in the Free State we are mindful of the important task that we have been entrusted with, to preserve our history and heritage. This is part of our broad mandate of ensuring social cohesion and nation building.

As a consequence of this significant mandate we have rolled up our sleeves to ensure that our museums and heritage sites not only become transformed into centres of preservation of history and memory, but that such preservation is all encompassing of the total history of our land. Amongst some of the things we are doing in terms of our museums and heritage sites are the following:

1. We are currently renovating the Pioneer Museum in Winburg to ensure it meets acceptable museological standards.
2. Renovations are underway at the Chris van Niekerk Museum in Boshof.
3. 98% of the restoration project at the Wesleyan Church, the birthplace of the African National Congress, has been completed and the Department has spent approximately R12 million on this project.
4. The restoration work at Mapikela house has been successfully completed with more than R5 million spent.
5. Restoration of Caledonian Museum in Phillipolis is 98% complete and the museum will depict the history of Khoi and the San which is a marginalised community in South Africa.
6. The Military Museum has been transformed to ensure it accommodates various communities of the province. The history of liberation struggle armed wings like AZANLA, APLA and Umkhondo we Sizwe have been incorporated into the museum with dedicated exhibitions.
7. The Old Presidency is also used to accommodate the Visitor Information Centre which provides information on various attraction areas within the Mangaung Metro.

In response to government priority of transforming our heritage landscape, the Department, through the Provincial Heritage Resources Authority, has assisted the South African Heritage Resources Agency to declare the following places of cultural significance as National Heritage Sites:

1. Mapikela House.
2. Mapikela Grave.
3. Dr Moroka’s Grave.
4. Rev Mahabane’s Grave.

Nine (9) places of cultural significance will be gazetted and formally declared as Provincial Heritage Sites before the end of this current financial year. These will be the first sites to be declared in the province since 1994 with the promulgation of the National Heritage Resources Act, No. 25 of 1999.

The Free State geographical landscape is taking a new shape with the change of the Metro CBD main street formerly called Maitland to Charlotte Maxeke street, Eeufees Street to Dr Kenneth Kaunda Street, Andries Pretorius Street to Raymond Mhlaba Street, Bloemfontein Airport to Bram Fischer International Airport.

These are just but some of the efforts we have undertaken to ensure that history, ancient and modern, is transformed to take cognizance of the role that we have all played in the building of this country dating from as far back as the South African War and beyond.

Program Director, as we stand here today at this sod-turning ceremony for the Garden of Remembrance, let us again all be united in humble silence of the ultimate sacrifice these individuals made for us to ultimately enjoy the freedom we have today. It is true that over the years the complete path of struggles for freedom that took us through hard patches and immense sacrifices, as the very essence of what true freedom is, was often neglected.

But we have the opportunity today to come forth as a true free society and we cannot afford to forget the many people of this rainbow nation that had to pay that price in order for us to stand here today. This facility should be visited by all and sundry and used as a cornerstone for drawing lessons for the citizens of tomorrow as a shining beacon of South Africans of all cultures, creed and colour, struggling, fighting and living together in the shared goal of building a strong, unified, non-racial and non- discriminatory society.

I thank you.