Freeing ourselves from the spider’s web of past injustice

This requires realising the constitution’s commitment to healing the divisions, writes Kgalema Motlanthe

ON SATURDAY, South Africa will be marking Heritage Day. It was first celebrated in 1996 and, at that time, former president Nelson Mandela reminded us: “When our first democratically elected government decided to make Heritage Day one of our national days, we did so because we knew that our rich and varied cultural heritage has a profound power to help build our new nation.”

One of the three focus areas of the Panel on Assessment of Key Legislation and Acceleration of Fundamental Change is nation-building and social cohesion.

The panel, which the Speaker’s Forum of Parliament and the Provincial Legislatures established in January this year to assess and make recommendations about our laws passed since 1994, has isolated about 30 with a direct bearing on nation-building and social cohesion.

But laws need all of us to ensure their intentions are realised.

Heritage Day prompts us, again, to assess what it means to celebrate our rich and varied culture and to reflect on the laws we have that seek to nurture nation-building and social cohesion.

What does it mean in the context of our constitution which says we recognise the injustices of our past, honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land, respect those who have worked to build and develop our country and believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity?

How do we actually realise the constitution’s commitment to heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights; lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law; improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations?

No culture in South Africa is pristine, no language is unaffected by the multi-lingual experience of the melting pot that is our society.

Indigenous languages heavily influenced Afrikaans and themselves reflect English and Afrikaans influences.

The clicks of the Khoisan people are found in Nguni and Sesotho languages. Hindi and isiZulu influenced each other in KwaZulu-Natal. The different modes of production we have experienced over the centuries also shaped our culture.

Our democracy, inaugurated on April 27, 1994, has passed more than 1 000 laws – all intended to undo the divisions and entrenched inequalities stretching back many centuries.

The laws of that divided and brutal past spun a web of race-based control, exploitation and oppression over every aspect of life in this land at the southern-most tip of Africa.

It would not be surprising, therefore, if, upon examining these new laws intended to give expression to our constitution and its values, we find that there is still much to be done to make the intentions a reality for most people.

Nevertheless, we continue to make inroads in fashioning the society to which we aspire. Embracing our diversity and the heritage of our constitution we all share need not be an imposition.

Indeed, we effortlessly demonstrated this again in our support for our Olympic and Paralympic teams.

The work of the panel needs the views of South Africans from all walks of life.

We are trying to ensure this through calling for written submissions, holding public hearings in all nine provinces and through focused discussions with experts in different fields. Kgalema Motlanthe is the chairman of the High Level Panel on Assessment of Key Legislation and Acceleration of Fundamental Change