We’ve come a long way, says president
Day marks two events of deep significance in country’s history
SOUTH Africans have to be proud of how far they have come in healing the divisions of the past and building a united nation, President Cyril Ramaphosa said yesterday.
“One need only observe the outpouring of joy when the Springboks won the Rugby World Cup in Japan and when our Miss South Africa, Zozibini Tunzi, was crowned Miss Universe. South Africans of all races took to the streets in an outpouring of national pride.
“We see it elsewhere every day. In our sport that is now desegregated, in our Parliament, in our transformed places of higher learning and our schools and on our television screens where programming reflects the diversity of our nation and its languages and cultures,” he wrote in his weekly newsletter.
“Racism and bigotry no longer define our nation. Where they do occur, they are isolated. Where there have been manifestations of intolerance, we have been able to unite behind the values of tolerance and respect for diversity that define our Bill of Rights.”
Ramaphosa was in KwaZuluNatal to observe the Day of Reconciliation.
December 16 marked two events in South Africa’s history that were enduring symbols of conflict and resistance, he said.
“We commemorate the epic battle of 1838 on the banks of the Ncome River, and the founding of Umkhonto weSizwe on the same day more than a century later. These two historical events are of deep significance, and now symbolic of our ability to transcend a bitter legacy and forge a new path.”
He said the SA Reconciliation Barometer Survey 2019, published by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, found that a vast majority of South Africans agreed that the country still needed reconciliation.
“At the same time, just over a half of respondents believe that South Africa has made progress with reconciliation since 1994,” he said.
“According to the survey, most respondents agree that reconciliation is impossible as long as corruption continues, political parties sow division, those who were affected by apartheid continue to be poor, gender-based violence remains, we continue to use racial categories to measure transformation and racism in our society remains unaddressed.”
He said this confirmed that true reconciliation was not only about social cohesion, it was also about political and economic transformation.
“Since we attained our democracy, our people have demonstrated time and again their immense capacity to look beyond superficial differences in the quest to achieve true nationhood, and with it, embrace a fuller humanity.
“We will continue to seek out and forge durable social compacts to attain our vision of a South Africa that has been fundamentally transformed. We must all play our part if we are to bequeath to our children a society that has truly reconciled.”