CITY OF CAPE TOWN
30 JANUARY 2014
SPEECH BY THE CITY’S EXECUTIVE MAYOR, ALDERMAN
PATRICIA DE LILLE, ON THE OCCASION OF THE
CELEBRATION OF THE 24TH ANNIVERSARY OF
PRESIDENT FW DE KLERK’S SPEECH ANNOUNCING THE
UNBANNING OF POLITICAL FORMATIONS IN SOUTH
AFRICA
Former president FW de Klerk,
Mrs. De Klerk,
Honoured guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure for me to speak with you this evening.
The anniversary of Mr. de Klerk’s historic speech is an important date for
our country.
It was with the announcement of the unbanning of political parties that
transformation began.
Transformation, the process of change, is difficult.
Given that we like to cling to certainties, we are sometimes fiercely
opposed to change because we fear that which we do not know.
This is especially difficult for a country like South Africa that is in
transition, transition from one state of being to another, transition from
the architecture of prejudice to a constitutional state of equality and
freedom.
During the negotiations, there were certain principles that the liberation
movements agreed on.
The first was that the rule of law and a constitutional state was
paramount.
The second was that we would have to accept in the transition that you
do not dismantle the institutions of society in order to transform it.
Rather, you change them from within and position them for a different
social purpose.
That social purpose would be redress and reconciliation, missions for
which our institutions would require the very strongest foundations.
Our entire history as a country- as a republic, as colonies, as the lands
before the colonies- had been one of division.
For a time, it seemed that history compounded itself, the prejudices of
one generation being added to the ones before it, a cycle of entrenched
animosities.
The logic of our shared experience said that it might always be so: our
positions were too entrenched; our destinies too different.
But sometimes received wisdom needs just one contradiction to be swept
away, allowing the space for new wisdoms, new realities, to be created.
24 years ago, the framework of separation was removed and the swell of
new hope, new possibilities and uncharted futures swept so much away.
Since that time, we have confronted many challenges.
We have faced the realities of our old prejudices and tried to make
something new for ourselves and our children.
Much of the past clings to us, as it must to shape us and remind us of
who we are and how we came to be.
But even so, we omitted ourselves, as a nation and as a people, to move
forward together, to transform South Africa.
And that transformation would require every institution in society: from
the courts; to parliament; to our religious institutions; to civil society; the
media and the world of business.
It would require a meaningful effort to make a new future by everyone
working towards redress and reconciliation for a more lasting impact.
There have been many definitions and debates about what transformation
really means.
This is good and well in a democracy that believes in the free exchange of
ideas.
Unfortunately, the abuse of the term has made ‘transformation’ a dirty
word sometimes; a replication of the very worst aspects of ourselves in a
new elite that overlooks a project of unity to replace one ruling class with
another.
That is not a project of nation-building.
So let us say that there are a few imperatives: the need to make things
better than they were before; to uplift socio-economic opportunities,
especially for those who were denied them in the past; and to create a
society where an individual can access opportunity, be at liberty and
make a better life for her or himself.
It is to live free and without discrimination and to help those who come
from disadvantaged conditions access freedom through substantive help.
It is a project of social justice that seeks to make dignity for the individual
a reality.
These are ambitious goals, to be sure.
Indeed, they can only be served with total commitment, complete
transparency and selfless leadership that believes in doing all it can to
make the future we hope for a reality.
We have achieved a great deal in the past two decades.
But we cannot let the hope of the future we dreamed of in 1994 be seized
by setting our sights, and our dreams, lower.
If we did so, we would allow the project of transformation to be derailed
and only because we were not brave enough to hold ourselves to the very
highest standards.
We have achieved the unachievable in this country.
We did it when we put our weapons away.
And we did it each time we went to the ballot box and committed
ourselves to the South African project.
Let us do so again and realise that the dream of a transformed South
Africa is a fragile one.
It requires care and vigilance.
But above all, it requires the strongest commitment to build this nation
according to the freedoms, rights and vision of our constitution - a map
for transformation in trying to achieve redress and reconciliation.