Commit to Madiba values
WE have said farewell to a year of great challenges but immense breakthroughs, and welcome a new year with renewed hope and many reasons for optimism.
As a nation, we enter the 24th year of our democracy and continue to grow, strengthen and deepen the democratic experience. Although it sometimes felt as if certain parliamentarians were trying to set a Guinness Book of Records for the most votes of no confidence in one year in 2017, we have reason to be deeply satisfied that our democracy is working.
2017 was a big year for publishers and power pedlars who collectively revealed how perilously close we sailed to compromising the South African project, demonstrating the raw ambitions of those ready to stop at nothing for self-aggrandisement.
We call on all South Africans to recommit in this year of Mandela centennial celebrations to the goals of national reconciliation, nation building and social cohesion. Let us root out corruption and continue the journey to a better life for all, together.
Among the highlights of 2017 was the reopening of the inquest into what has now been established was the murder in detention of Ahmed Timol by security policemen 46 years ago. As a nation, we cannot reconcile if we are in denial about horrors of the past.
My grandfather would no doubt have approved of our going to the streets in Cape Town and other major centres in support of the Palestinian struggle. Our parliament stood firm in rejecting the Israeli parliamentary delegation, and was instrumental in halting Israeli chequebook diplomacy by calling off the first Africa-Israel summit in Togo.
After I witnessed firsthand the reality of occupied West Bank, we were elated in December by the ANC’s 54th NGC resolution demanding the downgrade of diplomatic relations with Israel. We had called for a total shutdown of relations
Those who welcomed US president Donald Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem decried our stand with the oppressed people of Palestine.
Turning to children, too many live in poverty and hunger. We’re grateful that, with the help of the local Pakistani community, we managed to bring some Christmas cheer to the children of Mvezo Komkhulu and the surrounding villages, as President Mandela did for many years.
Perhaps in 2018 we will pay heed to the sage advice of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that if “each of us helps our neighbour, then who is there that will need help”.
Few things riled me more in 2017 than news that bodies were piling up in Cape Town’s mortuary due to an unprecedented spike in drug and gangster war on the Cape Flats. The drug trade has become a national scourge, cutting to the root of the new society we are cultivating. We call on communities and CBOs across our country to unite behind the campaign to rid society of gangsterism and drugs.
We wish holidaymakers a safe return from our sunny beaches to their homes. May we never give up on our hopes and dreams, and may 2018 take us ever closer to their realisation. We call on all, young and old, to make the Mandela centennial celebrations meaningful and memorable. Do something special, even if small in your eyes. The legacy lives on and the dream will never die! — Nkosi Zwelivelile, Royal House of Mandela, Mvezo Komkhulu