Address by the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Honourable Sihle Zikalala MPL on the occasion of the 160th Anniversary of the first Indian Indenture in South Africa, Shri Mariammen Temple, Mount Edgecombe, Sunday 15 November 2020
My Elders;
Distinguished Ladies and Lentlemen;
Comrades and Friends;
Fellow South Africans;
Vanakkam,
Namaste,
Namaskaram,
Sanibonani nonke
We stand at a historic moment in time.
We rise in salute to the indentured workers first shipped to our shores from India on 16 November 1860.
We honour the courage, sacrifice and struggle of those 152 000 women, men and children.
They spawned 1.5 million proud South Africans of Indian heritage.
Mount Edgecombe is holy ground.
If the soil beneath our feet could speak, it would shout the words of the celebrated poet, Mr BD Lalla:
“Thus spake he kindly who had need for my toil,
Thus came I hopeful who had need of his spoil.
Boldly I girded my loins to the toil,
Ploughed every cane-field and turned every soil.”
Mr Lalla was a student at Fort Hare and a distinguished teacher at Sastri College.
His poetry published in 1946 speaks of despair, arising from the pain of indenture.
He writes elsewhere, “I cannot paint the scenes that artists love.”
Mr Lalla and the forefathers and mothers we celebrate would however be proud today.
Standing strong, working together, we have built schools and temples, hospitals and churches, universities and mosques.
No one community has done this on their own.
It has taken the toil of all our people.
Indian indenture was every bit as oppressive as the African migrant labour system.
British imperialism plundered India, extracted its wealth and impoverished its people.
In desperation, over a million Indians were forced into indentured migrant labour from Jamaica to Fiji, Guyana to Mauritius and the oppressive colonial regime of the then Natal.
British imperialism ripped Africa apart, grabbed her land and destroyed her economies.
Forced taxation drove thousands upon thousands of Africans into the dreaded migrant labour system mostly in the mines of the Witwatersrand.
The last great uprising against British taxation was the 1906 Rebellion led by Inkosi Bambatha kaMancinza Zondi. That resistance was brutally suppressed by superior firepower.
Still we organised, we mobilised and we resisted.
We salute Inkosi Bambatha and the brave warriors he led.
As we stand on this historic ground in Mount Edgecombe, let us also remember the heroes and heroines whose blood waters the tree of freedom.
In this regard I must turn to the longest serving president of the African National Congress, Cde Oliver Reginald Tambo.
On accepting the imprisoned Madiba’s Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in New Delhi on 14 November 1980, Cde Tambo said:
“It is fitting that on this day, I should recall the long and glorious struggle of those South Africans who came to our shores from India 120 years ago. Within two years of entering the bondage of indentured labour, Indian workers staged their first strike against the working conditions in Natal. This was probably the first general strike in South African history. Their descendants, working and fighting for the future of their country, South Africa, have retained the tradition of militant struggle and are today an integral part of the mass-based liberation movement in South Africa.”
Together, we have turned toil and struggle into a proud nation, united in its diversity.
We must continue to cherish the times we have come together and stood together.
Side by side, we trumpet the non-racial unity of the 1952 Defiance Campaign, the 1956 Treason Trial, the solidarity on Robben Island, black and white together in the United Democratic Front and the Mass Democratic Movement and these past 26 years uniting our people and building our country.
A poignant quote from trade unionist and former ANC parliamentarian Cde Pregs Govender in her book, Love and Courage – A Story of Insubordination, speaks of this unity in action in the 1980s:
“Indian and African workers have voted to striking together. The decision to unite is taken. The bosses and this government always divide us – that is their weapon. Our weapon is unity. Don’t speak the language of division.”
In our work and in our struggle, we can assure BD Lalla that we have painted the scenes artists love but we cannot rest.
Much more needs to be done.
2020 is indeed a powerful historical moment for celebrating our glorious heritage as South Africans.
In this year that we mark the 160th year since the first Indian indenture, it is also thirty years since our beloved Madiba walked out of prison.
It is the birth centenaries of a number of heroes of the struggle for South African freedom including Comrades Harry Gwala, Rusty Bernstein and MP Naicker.
It is the sixtieth anniversary of the Nobel Prize for Peace being awarded to the President of the African National Congress, Inkosi Albert Luthuli.
Sixty-five years ago our people came together at the Congress of the People at Kliptown to write the Freedom Charter which boldly declared: “South Africa belongs to all who live in it ….”
This is also 40 years since our stalwart, Mam’ Lilian Ngoyi’s passed on.
History is an important thread in the social fabric that makes us a nation.
History is however not a linear process.
History is a melting pot of social, economic, cultural and political forces that prods us forward.
We have a powerful past of solidarity and unity in action.
That history of struggle has equipped us to deal with the present-day challenges that confront our sixth administration in a democratic South Africa.
We must however always be looking forward.
In the postscript of his powerful book, Let My People Go, Inkosi Luthuli wrote: “We must quicken the tempo …”
That call to action must rouse us to the frontline.
We must acknowledge that there are many fault lines in our society.
Poverty, inequality and unemployment confront us at every corner.
COVID-19 threw us a curved ball.
In acting responsibly, in acting together, we have been spared the worst ravages of the pandemic.
We have come a long way as a nation, and as a province, in our battle against COVID-19.
We have moved from the confusion, fear, panic and anxiety that marked the early stages of this outbreak.
We have done very well to heed the call by our Government that this is a disease that needed to be de-mystified and understood.
In achieving this we were well-placed to contain its spread and protect ourselves.
We must now work together on a creative post-COVID economic recovery plan.
One of the most effective ways in which we can move forward is to support our Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs), by buying goods and services that are locally made.
We also call on South Africans, particularly our young people, to not only look at getting employed, but to get into the spirit of entrepreneurship.
Young people must find innovative ways to exploit economic opportunities so that they can shape our nation’s future.
As we rebuild the economy, we must look to a modern knowledge-economy.
Our need is for a workforce that is entrepreneurial in spirit and outlook, numerically and scientifically literate, technologically competent, and possessing problem-solving skills.
In these trying times we each have to be our sisters’ and brothers’ keepers.
In the spirit of ubuntu, we are because of each other.
Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu.
While we cherish our common nationhood, we must also recognise the serious fault lines that linger from the divisions forced on our society by slavery, colonialism, indenture, apartheid, patriarchy and unfettered capitalism.
As the Provincial Government, we have worked hard at promoting social cohesion as a necessary step in the broader reconciliation and nation building process Madiba led us into in 1994.
Even though we have enjoyed twenty-six years of freedom and honoured the commitment in the Freedom Charter, we cannot take our unity for granted.
Unity will not come about simply because we proclaim it.
We must work hard for equity, social justice and ensuring that all our people have a place in the sun.
We want to be a united, non-racial, nonsexist, democratic and prosperous society.
We know that high levels of poverty, joblessness, and inequality can become fertile ground for social conflict to thrive.
We must correct the skewed nature of our economy.
The lack of access to economic opportunities, particularly among Africans is one of the biggest threats to social cohesion.
We therefore want to assure the people of KwaZulu-Natal that our government is working tirelessly towards ensuring that the poorest of the poor is given access to economic opportunities.
We must quicken the tempo.
We must paint the scenes that artists love.
This anniversary of indenture must be an occasion for us to remember, reflect and restore.
As another brave trade unionist Mam’ Emma Mashinini wrote in Strikes Have Followed Me All My Life: “Our lives are enriched by the struggle to uphold human rights and in the fight for the dignity of individuals.”
Democracy enabled us to claim the dignity and self-respect we were denied for nearly 350 years.
Let us use this historic moment in time to reach out to each other.
Let us celebrate the triumph over the adversity of indenture and participate fully in the building of our non-racial democracy.
Together Moving KwaZulu-Natal Together!
Ngiyabonga.
