Members of the Executive Council
Members of the Legislature
Executive Mayors and Mayors Councillors
Members of the community
Members of the media
Ladies and gentleman
Comrades and friends
The importance of heritage to society can be likened to the centrality of a mirror in any endeavour to beautify oneself. South Africa has as a society demonstrated an insatiable appetite to renew itself for any challenges that face it. In this renewal we always do so knowing that our connection with our real past is a watermark guide on how not to repeat our mistakes and how to improve on our strength.
The development of a national heritage is very much a function of how that society creates a memory about its future whilst benchmarking on the strengths of its past. With a formal constitutional history spanning 100 years and a liberation movement that has been there for the past 100 years we surely have inbuilt mechanisms to wither any storm challenging our democracy. The recent NGC has reaffirmed the unifying power of heritage for a community of persons sharing a destiny within a highly contested environment.
The base knowledge on the tried and tested methods of bringing cohesion in an organisation an amorphous as the ANC was put into good use to diffuse what would potentially have redefined the course of our history and therefore heritage. Nations and their organisations must have cultural shrines from which they can draw inspiration on how to create a memory of the future they want to be in. As a nation we envisaged through the vision of great men like Stix Morewa that we will one day host a FIFA World Cup. At the time Oom Stix, Dr Khosa, Kaizer Motaung, Leepile Taunyane and many others started dreaming of a world cup, they immediately created a memory of the future that required a new generation of government leaders to embrace.
The ANC government, true to its character in terms of defining the social, political and economic path for this region rose up to the task and thrust the South African nation into this noble vision. When we went to Switzerland, expectant of a favourable outcome, we knew that South Africa will after that announcement never be the same. We knew that the world cup will redefine how we do things around here.
We knew that we now have a deadline of whom its outcome was going to be monitored by the world with us playing at the level of putting in place the puzzles that create the broader picture. We knew that our government’s ability to manage multi-faceted projects that integrate all facets of the very existence of government was on a global stage with a very hostile refereeing system often cheer led by our very own media houses. We knew that our success in this world cup meant a redefinition of Africa as a bastion of innovation and excellence. We needed to demystify Africa to scholars of innovation and development.
Our architectural designs were conceptualised in a manner that creates structures reminiscent to the Egyptian Pyramids, the Mapunguwe City, the Kingdom of Monumutapa infrastructural designs as well as the artistic prowess of our San and Khoi greats. The logistical prowess that we unleashed through the readiness of our aviation industry, the Gautrain, the Bus Rapid Transit systems in the Metros, the reorientation of our vein transport industry Taxis as well as the foundations laid for high speed passenger rail; have defined us into a different league of nations. The social cohesion implications of our world cup delivery have had innumerably gains that were also observed in the non-racial character of the public service strike. Yes we did not support the strike but we have taken note of the growing non-racialisation of class interests within the working population of this country.
What am I actually saying here? I am telling us that South Africa’s heritage is punctuated by many heroic activities that we ourselves are sometimes unable to phantom. We remain the only country that was able to organise the largest social movement against a system that ended up been declared a crime against humanity We remain one of the few countries that modelled its struggle from the onset on the principle of South Africa belongs to all who live in it.
Our thesis of a better life for all continues to reshape policy pronouncement of all and sundry in the world. We are one of the few countries that settled for future based on the memories we have about that future. We declared to ourselves that never and never again will this happen again. We have also restored, protected and are curetting our historical paths in order to create a firmament for memory creation that has all the data from perpetrators of what we would not want to see.
Our intellectual heritage and the recognition thereof records greats such as Nadime Gordimer a Nobel laureate novelist, Andre Coetzee Nobel laureate, Chris Barnard with the Heart transplant, Mark Shuttleworth first African in space, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk Nobel peace price laureates and many others; that is heritage. We were crowned by the world in 2010 when the United Nations accepted Mandela day as a day for humanity to reflect on ubuntu as a soul creation philosophy for the world.
The ubuntuness in us as a society has created moral leadership tools our people can only export to the world. This is the heritage that we are celebrating This is the heritage most of us must start to be proud of and say to our grand children, I was there. As we walk in this beautiful land of our we should start seeing its infrastructure, its people, its achievement and its greats as a moving museum to be curated for our minds to reapply in the many situations we need innovation, Christians have this powerful song that they interrogate each other about readiness for the other life; they say “ne lami likhona mzalwani”.
We should therefore ask ourselves; where on this face of the earth is my name, contribution or role going to be inscribed.
Let me make suggestions:
- Teach your children on how to make use of the emerging opportunities; they are your most visible monuments
- Tell your kids what role you are playing in this revolution and find ways of getting them involved in your activities
- Join a volunteer group and be part of the global movement of selfless people that want to make a difference in the life of others, we had volunteer from other countries during the World Cup and they surely taught me one or two things
- Create a network of likeminded people to monitor what heritage issues define your local community
As I conclude I want to agree with the president when he said that our heritage as a society was a result of the many struggles we went through as a society, community and nation. We should therefore be jealous how this heritage is recorded and defined.
I thank you.
Enquiries:
Matshube Mfoloe
Tel: 018 387 2447
Cell: 082 305 4594
E-mail: mmfoloe@nwpg.gov.za
Source: North West Provincial Government
