December the 16th is Reconciliation Day. It is a day which, more than ten years ago, would have been remembered and celebrated differently. There were those who saw it as the day of the vow because of a particular episode in history. There were those who saw it as Dingani's Day because of an episode in history. There were those who saw it as the birth of Umkhonto weSizwe because of an episode in history. There were those who had other ideas about what happened on December the 16th. And it was, for the last ten years, our day in which to reconcile all the different conceptions and histories and understandings we have of what happened in South Africa; to reconcile it all and call December the 16th, the Day of Reconciliation. I think it is that, that brings us all together today, particularly in Cape Town, but all over the country.
Today is the unveiling of Freedom Park for the nation. That is where the State President is. We are hoping that this Nobel Square that we are unveiling today, will be the Freedom Park of the Western Cape. We'll be able to respond to our ambitions and aspirations for reconciliation in a very special way. The Western Cape has also been asked to commence on this day, a week of reflection on particularly our slave history. And we have done so with performances at the Baxter such as Vuma, we are doing so on Sunday in Genadendal by bringing to mind fourteen outstanding figures out of that slave era - whether they were slaves or whether they were abolitionists; whether they were freed slaves or whether they were of the Xhosa communities who gave sanctuary to slaves.
And so I think that this day becomes not only a day of plastering over those divisions of the past, but going into the history of the past so that we all understand who we are, look each other in the eye and be able to say: "This is who I am. I want to relate to you. I want to embrace what is common between us, and I want to appreciate what is different between us." And I think that this is what reconciliation means for us today.
When the Western Cape thought more than two years ago, under the Premiership of Marthinus van Schalkwyk, when we thought how could we leave a legacy behind that our children will forever be able to look at and say: "Once in this Cape Town, once in this Western Cape, once in this South Africa, once on this continent of Africa, lived and walked four great people; four people who still hold the record for us, as a country anywhere in the world, that our country has contributed probably the most Nobel Peace Prize Laureates that the world has ever seen, most probably, most likely to see - how do we honour that.
We are all familiar with the gold that we export, we are familiar with the fruits that we export, we are familiar with the wines that we export, and so many other things that we export. But we are probably blind to the most important thing that we export. And that is: our nation stands out in the world as a nation who took violence and transformed it into peace; who took division and transformed it into unity; who took so many negative things and transformed them into a positive image of what South Africa means in the world today; and we owe it, in part, to the great contributions made by four people who stood out in the world and won the Nobel Peace Prize in their time, for their people and for our country as a whole. And that's a massive resource that we must have. No tourist must visit the Waterfront, must go to Table Mountain, must come to South Africa or even go to the Kruger National Park without knowing that South Africa is what it is today because there were four people who once walked in this country, who once sacrificed in this country, who once rose above everything that could have kept them down, but made sure that our country stands out, and is today a beacon of peace and friendship anywhere else in the world, and that is what we mark today.
Who will ever forget the contribution of an Archbishop Desmond Tutu who, in the 1970's and the 1980's and through to the 1990's stood out as someone who articulated the pain of our nation, whether he led the march in front, whether he presided over funerals of our youth, or whether he visited the pain of so many people who suffered under apartheid? Who will ever forget Archbishop Desmond Tutu exhorting our people, not only to struggle, but to higher levels of morality in that struggle as he sometimes stood between the instincts of our people to do horrible things to those who did horrible things to them? And he stood between them. Who will ever forget that?
Who will ever forget that Archbishop Desmond Tutu expressed at a very critical moment in our history our yearning to be one, our yearning to be united as a people when he said that we are the rainbow nation of God? That is what, amongst other things, made Archbishop Desmond Tutu stand out as a symbol of what we want to be as a nation.
Similarly, there are moments which define FW de Klerk. The seminal moment probably is when he grabbed power from PW Botha who could not cross that Rubicon and he instead picked up the (indistinct). The moment of joy when all our hearts surged across the country when he unbanned the ANC and other liberation movements, when he freed Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners. And we knew at that moment that that which we had been struggling for was eminently possible, at that moment. That moment when he transcended his own history, his own party, his own people, to start a process of negotiating a better future for all our people. Those are the things, which have earned him some of the accolades that the world has been able to give.
Who will be able to forget Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, his twenty-seven years in prison in the Western Cape, in Cape Town? When he could not be with us but yet was such a powerful presence amongst us. When he could not speak to us, but spoke to us in such inspirational ways that kept us believing that the future was going to be better than the present. That Nelson Mandela, who could not march with us, but led us in decisive ways that kept us going forward to this moment of victory and, this moment of peace and this moment of glory that South Africa experiences in the world. He epitomized everything that was good, that was noble and dignified, not only in our struggle but also in our people, who transformed concepts like reconciliation, forgiveness, co-existence from its original conceptions of weakness, compromise and defeat, and made them such powerful words that resonate even today across the world. That is what Nelson Mandela has been able to do to us.
Some of us who are of the younger generation have not known Chief Albert Luthuli. And I thought how do you explain to those of us who have not walked with him, who have not worked with him, who have not understood the man, who only know about the man. And we thought, let the Chief speak to you himself because in the paragraph that I want to read to you from his work, "Let My People Go," his autobiography, I think stands much of the roots that our country is building on, much of the vision that our province is striving towards.
Chief Albert Luthuli, in his autobiography says, and I quote: "The task is not finished. South Africa is not yet a home for all her sons and daughters. Such a home we wish to ensure. From the beginning our history has been one of ascending unities, the breaking of tribal, racial and creedal barriers. The past cannot hope to have a life sustained by itself, wrenched from the whole. There remains before us the building of a new land, a home for men who are black, white, brown, from the ruins of the old narrow groups, a synthesis of the rich cultural strains which we have inherited. There remains to be achieved our integration with the rest of our continent. Somewhere ahead there beckons a civilisation, a culture, which will take its place in the parade of God's history beside other great human syntheses, Chinese, Egyptian, Jewish, European. It will not necessarily be all black; but it will be African." Those are the words of Chief Albert Luthuli. That's the inspiration that we have taken for the Western Cape. A province divided, a province not at peace with itself, a province of suspicion and fear. We've got to get out the message of Chief Luthuli that this province is not yet but can be a home for all its people. So Chief Luthuli lives with us also, in a very special way because he's the only one who has not spent an extended time to live here amongst us, whether with his will or against his will. But we thought that his vision for the Western Cape should remain a live vision that successive generations must always continue to strive towards the making of the Western Cape, a home for all.
I want to end up by introducing the person who, when he was Premier, conceived of the idea of the Nobel Square. I'll be dishonest to say that it was my idea. It was the idea of Marthinus van Schalkwyk and there's no better way to honour that by inviting him to this podium to speak to you. Thank you very much.
