SPEECH BY HELEN ZILLE
MAYOR OF CAPE TOWN
CIVIC HONOURS CEREMONY (SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING)
CAPE TOWN CIVIC CENTRE – 16 APRIL 2009, 10H00
Speaker, councillors, Freeman of the City, Dr Richard Van Der Ross, award
recipients and their representatives, City officials, honoured guests, ladies and
gentlemen.
Welcome to the City of Cape Town‟s Civic Honours Ceremony for 2009.
Recognising outstanding contributions by citizens in various fields has been a
longstanding tradition in major cities around the world.
In Cape Town this tradition dates back over 50 years, but was discontinued in
2000, after the amalgamation of seven smaller municipal administrations into one
Unicity.
In October 2006 we revived it with a small ceremony to recognise the pro bono
efforts of several individuals from the legal fraternity to help a Cape Town family
recover ownership of their grandmother‟s house, after it had been invaded and
illegally transferred into the invader‟s name.
Since then, we have made many further awards, with larger ceremonies.
Today‟s ceremony is larger than any of these previous occasions. We decided to
take this to a new level, because we believe it is important to fully restore the
tradition of civic honours to this city.
We need to do all we can to promote the values of civic-mindedness in our
maturing democracy.
These values have proven to be fundamental to the success of most great
democracies in the world today.
In the new South Africa, almost everyone knows that the Constitution protects their
rights.
But the section which says that „[a]ll citizens are…equally subject to the duties and
responsibilities of citizenship‟ (Section 3) is less well known.
„Responsibilities of citizenship‟ can take many forms: upholding the rights of others,
service above self, or contributing toward nation-building through outstanding
service and achievements, to give just a few examples.
We are here today in order to acknowledge individuals and organisations who have
contributed in these and many other ways, and to encourage them to continue their
outstanding efforts. I would like to congratulate them collectively, and details of
their individual achievements will follow.
They will receive their awards in terms of a new Civic Honours Policy that the City
of Cape Town has introduced.
The policy has five main categories: Freedom of the City, Signing of the Civic
Honours Book, Honorary Title of Alderman, Freedom of Entry into the City, and the
Mayor‟s Medal for Community Service. It also makes provision for long service
awards to local government employees.
Most of these award types have been carried over from the previous Civic Honours
policies of Cape Town‟s former administrations.
There are three living Freemen of the City: former State President and Nobel
Laureate, Nelson Mandela, Nobel Laureate, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu,
and former UWC Chancellor Dr Richard Van Der Ross, who is with us today.
We are not proposing to bestow Freeman of the City on anyone today, and we have
made the rules for this award stringent, requiring unanimous support from Council.
The last Freedom of Entry to the City awarded was in November 1974, when it was
bestowed on the SA Cape Corps Service Battalion.
Freedom of Entry is a category for military units, and is given in recognition of their
long relationship with the City or their outstanding service to the nation.
It allows them to march “through the streets of Cape Town on all ceremonial and
other occasions with swords drawn, bayonets fixed, drums beating and colours
flying”.
This year we will offer this award to two entities, the Air Force Base Ysterplaat,
which is represented here today by Colonel Cowan, and the 9th South African
Infantry Battalion, represented by Lieutenant-Colonel Olivier.
The Signing of the Civic Honours Book is also an award that has long standing in
Cape Town.
The last Civic Honours Book award on record was made in August 2000 to Imam
Abdullah Haron, Zolile Malindi, Ray Alexander Simons, Adele Searll, Achmat Davids,
Tandeka Holo, Norman Daniels and Dorothy Zihlangu.
Each recipient of this award is given a copy of the citation in the Civic Honours
Book, which is kept by the City for future generations to remember Cape Town‟s
great citizens. Today there are three recipients, who we will call upon shortly.
Today we will also confer the title of Alderman on 16 councillors. This title, derived
from Old English, literally means „Elder Man‟, and has in the past been given to all
former mayors. Our policy also allows this be given to councillors under a range of
different criteria, mainly relating to length of service and levels of responsibility,
and works on a point system.
Finally, the Mayor‟s Medal is a new category in our policy.
It acknowledges contributions in 8 different fields, including Community Affairs,
Social Affairs and Services, Cultural Affairs, Youth Affairs, Recreation and Sport,
Conservation, Economic Affairs and Extraordinary Bravery.
Today we have 21 individuals and organisations that will receive awards in these
fields.
Once again, I would like to congratulate this year‟s winners as a collective, and
thank them for their valued contributions to making Cape Town a great city.
Speaker, let us now proceed to the presentation of awards.