KMadam Speaker
Honourable Premier and members
Esteemed guests
What is remarkable about Afrikaners in South Africa is that they have had a keen sense of history and the good sense of preserving that history. Where ever one goes, be it a large city or a dorpie, one will find some monument, plaque or landmark signifying the struggles of the Afrikaner people for self-determination.
Even in a small municipal building, there will be a little plaque indicating that this building was officially opened by some local Afrikaner political or administrative figure of yesteryear. Afrikaners took pride in their history and took active measures to preserve that history.
What is equally remarkable is that historically-oppressed people in South Africa, after fighting a heroic struggle against colonial conquest and white political domination lasting over three centuries; and a protracted and militant struggle for national self-determination led by the African National Congress, have chosen to maintain these signposts of Afrikaner nationalist rule.
Other than in a few instances where these hurtful relics of the past have been removed for symbolic reasons, most have remained intact in government buildings and in open spaces. This is the case after 20 years of democratic rule led by the ANC.
There are two principal reasons for this reality. The first is that the ANC recognises that there was a progressive, anti-imperialist content to the struggle of Afrikaners against British imperialism. We acknowledge that it was a heroic struggle led by brave men and women that is today still being celebrated in Bok van Blerk’s song entitled, De la Rey, wherein he calls on the legendary General Koos de la Rey to lead the Boers again.
Secondly, the ANC has preserved the symbols of Afrikaner rule to this day as it believes in those profound words of the Freedom Charter, that “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white”. It is our subscription to this value that allows us to believe that the heritage of any one segment of our country’s population should become the heritage of all.
This is the fundamental principle underpinning the drive for national reconciliation and unity that is more commonly associated with former President Nelson Mandela. But its real origin lies in the ANC’s ideological perspective of a broader, inclusive and more humanistic nationalism, rather than the generosity and goodwill of a single, great leader.
And so it is that the ANC has largely preserved the political heritage of the Afrikaner people. It is for this reason that the Voortrekker Monument stands tall alongside Freedom Park, as one of the signature collection of museums of all our people in Gauteng.
Even as it preserves Afrikaner heritage, the ANC since its inception in 1912 recognised that there was a contradictory and regressive component to the struggle of Afrikaners in that they could not overcome their narrow nationalistic and racialist ideology driven by a false notion of ethnic and racial superiority.
That they could not transcend this false notion of racial superiority of whites over others ultimately led to their defeat.
The ANC was formed precisely to challenge this narrow nationalism and to champion the cause of African people who were increasingly being confronted with land dispossession, race discrimination, poverty and social dislocation. Over time, as it interacted with the other formations such as the Communist Party of South Africa and the South African Indian Congress, it adopted an expansive understanding of African nationalism.
After the Second World War, it increasingly advocated a broader, more embracing, and more inclusive nationalism which brought into its ranks activists, members and leaders from across the racial and class spectrum.
It is this broadness and inclusiveness that resonates so strongly, so movingly in the Preamble of our Constitution, which reads:
We, the people of South Africa, recognise the injustices of our past; honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land; respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.
At the same time the ANC must strike a careful balance between preserving the heritage of others and cultivating its own heritage. Not to do so would wipe out the memory of its own history in the minds of succeeding generations to come.
Today, we can say with pride that the ANC government has taken active
measures to preserve the heritage of political, cultural and social struggles of the historically-oppressed in our country. It is the ANC government that has developed the Newtown Cultural Precinct.
It is the ANC government that has constructed the Nelson Mandela Bridge. It is the ANC government that has built memorial sites in Sharpeville and Bophelong to honour those who were massacred in these communities. It is the ANC government that has transformed a prison into the seat of our Constitutional Court at Constitution Hill.
It is the ANC government that has immortalised the memory of Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo with the establishment of the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication in Kliptown and the re-naming of the Johannesburg International Airport to the OR Tambo International Airport.
Madam Speaker, it is the ANC government that has created the Youth Monument in Soweto to cherish the memory of the June 1976 student uprising. It is the ANC government that completed the construction of the OR Tambo Memorial at the cemetery in Wattville (Ekurhuleni).
And it is the ANC government that shortly is to begin the construction of a Women’s Monument in Tshwane. In contrast, the Democratic Alliance is desperately grappling at straws to construct its own identity and to claim some political heritage. It has launched the ‘Know your DA’ campaign. It is a campaign that is artificial and shallow. It lacks authenticity. It has tried hopelessly to appropriate the legacy of Nelson Mandela and it clumsily claimed the Freedom Charter as part of its history.
By now they should know that COPE tried the same thing, and failed. With dear life, the DA hangs onto the valuable and worthy legacy of Helen Suzman, because that is all it has. Nothing else! Even then, the billboard of Helen Suzman near Soweto has sadly been taken down.
What a mess of a campaign. Madam Speaker, only a party with shallow roots, or no roots at all, will attempt fraudulently to claim the political heritage of others. On the contrary, the ANC broadly embraces the heritage of others with absolute confidence and without the slightest doubt in its own legacy. It is for this reason that we have chosen not to change road names associated with figures of the apartheid era such as Ben Schoeman.
Instead, the ANC government has taken the high road by honouring leaders from other liberation movements as well as from its own ranks. Hence, this ANC government has honoured, among others, Steve Biko, Albertina Sisulu, Jeff Masemola, Dr Beyers Naude, Lilian Ngoyi, Dr Abu Bakr Asvat, Sophie de Bruyn, Solomon Mahlangu, Justice Ismail Mahomed, Johann Heyns, Nana Sita and Bram Fischer.
The beautiful thing about the ANC government in the City of Johannesburg is that it chose to honour our musicians and cultural artists in Newtown. So we have it: Becker Street is now Gerard Sekoto Street; Goch Street is Henry Nxumalo Street; Sydenham Street has changed to Noria Mabasa Street; Avenue Road to Dolly Rathebe Road; Park Road to Barney Simon Road; and Bezuidenhout Street to Miriam Makeba Street.
Madam Speaker
Let me conclude by reminding the House that the ANC government will honour former President Nelson Mandela by unveiling a golden statue of this great leader of ours as the country marks the 100th anniversary of the Union Buildings in Pretoria in December 2013. We have no doubt that this in future will become the single most important site in the entire history of South Africa. Present and succeeding generations will honour the legacy of this great and outstanding global leader, who was produced by the ANC.
Also, the imposing Union Buildings and its superb gardens the official seat of the ANC government is a part of our political heritage. It was designed in 1908 by the British architect, Sir Herbert Baker, and the construction of the Union Buildings began in 1909 and was completed in 1913.
Approximately 1 265 artisans and workmen were involved in building the structure, using around 14 million bricks for the interior office walls; half-a-million cubic feet of freestone; 74 000 cubic yards of concrete; 40 000 bags of cement and 20 000 cubic feet of granite. The ANC government has preserved this and will continue to look after this beautiful building in future.
Madam Speaker, this is the political heritage this ANC leaves to future generations in our beloved country!
Ismail Vadi
