Honouring our past

IT WAS 22 years ago, on Saturday, December 16, 1995, that South Africa first celebrated Reconciliation Day.

It marked South Africans’ commitment to break with their centuries-old oppressive, divided and conflict-ridden past. It marked a determination, instead, to work together to develop a state based on the advancement of human rights and freedoms, non-racialism, non-sexism, the supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law.

Progress in achieving these goals has been made but much more must still be done. As we now take stock of where we are, let us reaffirm our commitment to these ideals and consider how we should use our collective strengths to attain them.

Reconciliation requires correcting past and current injustices and also successfully carrying out plans to fully realise a truly better life for present and future generations.

As Nelson Mandela remarked in his 1995 National Reconciliation Day message to the nation: “There are few countries which dedicate a national public holiday to reconciliation. But then there are few nations with our history of enforced division, oppression and sustained conflict. And fewer still which have undergone such a remarkable transition to reclaim their humanity.”

As we mark National Reconciliation Day this year, South Africans, in their diversity, are urged to renew their commitment to the ideals of human dignity, equality and freedom for which Madiba and the other architects of our new South Africa fought. We must reject that which divides us and undermines our hard-won freedoms and embrace and enhance the noble values of unity, cohesion and peace. Moloto Mothapo Parliament of the Republic of South Africa