welcome the President of Singapore Mr SR Nathan to the Phoenix Settlement
24 April 2007
Welcome to the home of the Mahatma
As we welcome you to the Phoenix Settlement we must acknowledge the awe
which strikes us as we stand in the shadow of a great son of the world, a great
son of KwaZulu-Natal, Mahatma Gandhi. It was here at the Phoenix Settlement
that the Mahatma lived and worked. It was in this very place that his
philosophy of truth and justice, peace and compassion first took shape.
It must have been the fresh Indian Ocean breeze that blows all year; or the
fresh water which many a time quenched King Shaka's thirst, which gave
sustenance to Mahatma Ghandi's dream, and set him on a quest to build a nation.
We also know it was the conditions of the time - which reasonable human beings
from any part of the world could not but find objectionable that Mahatma Gandhi
found so deplorable.
It is here, on this soil, the Phoenix Settlement that Mahatma Gandhi's
Satyagraha ideas were thought about and debated with those who lived on the
Settlement. From here in KwaZulu-Natal, this philosophy was to spread its
influence in the rest of the world.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi led the 1906 Passive Resistance campaign. It was
during this campaign that his philosophy of Satyagraha assumed a life form.
What does this word mean "Truth (Satya) implies love, and firmness (agraha)
engenders and therefore serves as a synonym for force; the Force which is born
of Truth and love or non-violence."
It is indeed historic that during the visit of the President of Singapore Mr
SR Nathan and your delegation, we are able to experience this momentous
historical site. I welcome you to a settlement that has literally lived up to
its name. Destroyed in the 1980s it has risen once again from the ashes and
taken its rightful place in the pantheon of heritage sites that pay homage to
our liberation history.
We have used this and similar monuments in KwaZulu-Natal to fashion peace
out of a country and province which was at war with itself. It was a
KwaZulu-Natal that in the words of United States author Maya Angelou was a
beast that was eating up its own young. In this way we have chosen the path of
peace to that of violence, the path of reconciliation to that of reckless and
wanton destruction. In the words of Martin Luther King Junior, we learned to
live together as brothers and sisters, because we did not want to perish
together as fools.
Perhaps the story of the Phoenix Settlement is also that of the minarets of
the Grey Street mosque, the little Baptist Church in Kwa-Dukuza, the Lord Shiva
standing guard over the Umgeni Road Temple. It is the story of the Blue Lagoon
mutton bunny-chow eaters on a Friday afternoon. It is our story.
The tapestry of human diversity which forms the human race today has one
origin. That source is right here in the East and South Africa. Here humanity
took its first tentative steps on its long journey of discovery during which we
collectively had to conquer the elements and tame the environment. In the
process we have built the economies of the world as we know them today. We
built the Pyramids of Egypt; we built the Great Wall of China.
We raised the skyscrapers of New York, Durban and Singapore so they could
dominate the horizons of our cities. We have built ships and aeroplanes so we
could see what is on the other side. Only yesterday we started sending
civilians to the moon. This we did together, because if we paddle together in
unison, there is no limit to the heights we can scale. There are no depths to
which we cannot go to discover that which makes humanity better tomorrow than
it is today.
We are in the process of knitting together KwaZulu-Natal from the various
strands such as those of India, England, Holland, Malay, Africa and other parts
which make this great country and province of ours.
The quality of life in Singapore is made better by your fine rapid transit
system and your water-born transport system that links the city; manufacturing
and service industries are a marvel from which we will learn. We will no doubt
learn more in many other areas as we engage over the coming years. We hope to
continue this relationship with the people of Singapore, in all their
diversity. Let us build a long-lasting relationship between Singapore and South
Africa.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
24 April 2007
