The Minister of Sport and Recreation, Mr Fikile Mbalula paid tribute to the late Director-General of Sport and Recreation South Africa, Mr Vernie Petersen, at a memorial service held in Pretoria.
This was his message, delivered during his keynote address:
Four days ago, on the eve of the last day of February, our country and government lost one of the most beloved sons of our soil. Vivian (Vernie) Patrick Petersen, the Director-General of the Department of Sport and Recreation, passed away at the Zuid-Afrikaanse Hospitaal, Pretoria, on Sunday morning after a short illness.
Since then, the Petersen family and the Department of Sport and Recreation, have carried a heavy burden of grief. Our souls have refused to be stilled. Our spirits have sunk under the unbearable weight of an unexpected and numbing shock. Silent tears of despair have watered our cheecks and our motherland. The mournful cries of the bereaved continue to echo within our innermost being.
Four days have passed since his death, but nothing has happened to dull our pain.
Hence, today we are gathered here, four days later, to pay homage to this hero and son of the soil; and to express our sentiments with regard to one who was one of the most familiar, one of the most admired, one of the most beloved, and, without any doubt, the most extraordinary of our civil servant and comrade, to express these sentiments to him, the family and friends.
Vernie was one of those persons whom everybody liked immediately because of his simplicity, because of his nature, because of his naturalness, because of his commitment to his country and people, because of his personality, because of his originality, even before of his other singular virtues were revealed.
Born in Constantia, the up-market housing landscape of the Cape. His family was forcefully removed by the Apartheid government to the outskirts of the Cape Flats, Heideveld. Heideveld, in Cape Flats, is a place well known to some of us. Not for its beauty, but for its harshness. Separated by a mere railway line and bridges from the dusty streets of Gugulethu. No decent housing, inadequate health care, lack of sport and recreation facilities, little formal education, gangsterism and drug abuse. Yet this township, in the Cape Flats, produced Vernie Petersen, whose contribution in the struggle for liberation of our people shook the whole country and impacted on the world’s stage.
His life touched the very heart of the thousands of our people that knew him, especially from the Western Cape province where he was born 53 years ago, and even those who worked with him. Vernie died just twenty three days before his birthday. He knew struggle and pain, and eased it by giving many of us hope, courage and way forward. Vernie loved life, and lived it to the full. But he also loved his people.
We could sense it, but never crystallize the thought that with us was one of the few people who inhabited our own human environment, who could be described as the jewel in our crown. He had the unique ability to pick up on strategic issues and manage to translate those into a profound programme of action.
For a man such as he, procrastination and debates were not necessary. It was enough for him to know that the democratic state has to deliver. It has to deliver quality services to all South Africans. It was enough for him to know that there were men and women, like him, determined to push back the frontiers of poverty, ignorance and underdevelopment. It was enough for him to know that those men and women were inspired by a genuinely patriotic sentiment to realize social cohesion, unity and nation building. That was more than enough.
For ever loyal to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and to the objectives of the democratic state and incapable of betraying the humanity of its cause, Mr Petersen stood in the front line of those to whom we should bestow the accolade – “we shall overcome”.
When the sacrifices he had made brought freedom to every South African, during the 1994 democratic breakthrough, our government said “it remained the charge of all patriots to serve the people of South Africa selflessly, without seeking personal gain or glory, without arrogance and abuse of power, with honesty, dedication and dignity”.
Until the day he died, Vernie Petersen, lived up to this injunction and served with distinction in the governments that our people have elected freely since 1994.
His death, as we said few days ago, is a hard blow, it is a tremendous blow to the developmental state because, without any doubt, it deprives it of its most experienced capable public service cadre.
However, how must revolutionaries face this adverse blow? How must they face this loss? What would be Vernie’s opinion if he had to make a judgment on this subject? He expressed that opinion very clearly when he said “he regarded the timing of his involvement in sport and recreation, as placing him in an important space and time to impact positively on the development challenges that are facing the Republic”.
This for all of us here today shall mean that, perhaps Vernie was prophesying and saying, if death surprised him at any place, space and time, it should be welcomed, provided that his vision of “an active and a winning nation” had reached a receptive ear and another hand was stretched out to contribute meaningfully in the creation of a “Better Life for All”. That was his War Cry.
As Fidel Castro said in his Eulogy for Che Guevara “it will not reach one receptive ear, but millions of receptive ears, not one hand, but millions of hands outstretching to grasp weapons, inspired by his example”.
We must also be inspired by the example of this body in this coffin to contribute meaningfully in the creation of a better life for all South Africans and the people of the world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.
Ladies and gentlemen, on Monday 7 March 2011, we will lay to rest the Director-General of the Department of Sport and Recreation. A man of integrity; A man with a sense of honour and respect. A bulwark and courtesy of the public service administrators. A beaming individual that made sure that it became an oasis of fun to be around him. It was heart-warming to work with him.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have thus far focused our oration on Vernie Petersen. Allow me to turn our attention to the bereaved family.
Our country and government conveys its condolences to the entire Petersen family and expresses our indestructible appreciation of the fact that you surrendered your son to the nation. Our nation will, for all time, treasure and honour what he did, so that we should be human again.
Source: Sport and Recreation South Africa
