A celebration of ideas

March 5, 2008 - It’s not quite yet the birthday, I must say, before we start singing “happy birthday”.

Where we come from, there’s a superstition that you shouldn’t be wishing people happy birthday before their birthday, so it’s not quite time to celebrate the birthday but it’s time to make a couple of important announcements around this important year and this important date.

Almost 90 years ago Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born. His life and his 90 years saw some of the most turbulent decades of our country’s history. He saw the end of colonialism and then the beginning and, 42 long years later, the end of apartheid rule.

He dedicated his life to those principles now enshrined in our democratic Constitution – freedom, non-racialism, non-sexism, and the dignity of all human beings.

And in the end, despite untold suffering on him and his compatriots, South Africa triumphed, and we all triumphed.
Nelson Mandela helped build the foundations for a free and democratic South Africa, long dreamed of and suffered for by generations of our people.

His sacrifices, and those of millions of others, removed the ruthlessly cruel and at times seemingly indestructible edifice of apartheid and swept away the rubble so that a new South Africa could be born.
When his personal active involvement and activities were curtailed by the passage of time, he handed over the reins to the cluster of organisations set up in his name to help nurture and strengthen what he and his comrades had prepared in particular fields: the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, the Nelson Mandela Institute for Rural Education and Development, the Mandela Rhodes Foundation, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the 46664 Campaign. All of them are represented here this morning.

In his now famous, although often forgotten, speech of June 1, 2004, when he announced he was “retiring from retirement”, Madiba made it clear that these organisations, like each and every South African, should play their role in keeping alive the dream of our freedom and of a better life for all.

He has borne heavily the mantle of miracle-maker thrust upon him by a world hungry for happy endings.

But transformation and reconciliation in a world riven by conflict and inequality cannot have an ending.

They are interlinked and interdependent processes that have to be worked at by everyone.

The South African dream therefore cannot have an “ending”; it is an ongoing project for which we all bear responsibility.

Madiba has made the point over and over that his legacy, or what we refer to as his legacy, is the result not only of personal endeavour and struggle, but that of an organisation, a people, indeed, a nation.

It is with that in mind that we want to wish this pensioner a longer and happier life still. Over the last four years he has been trying very hard to spend time with his family and friends, not that the pressures for him to stop doing so have ended.

The organisations gathered here today, which have been charged with carrying on various aspects of his work, will strive even harder to give him the space to do the things he enjoys.

Madiba has decided to join us here today not only to see all of you – and you can be sure that he does that because of the pleasure of seeing people – and to thank you for your support in making freedom a reality, but also to witness as we again make our pledge to him and to you, that we will continue his work on the long road ahead.

We know that this road is a long one but we promise Madiba that we have the stamina and the determination to travel it.
Moreover, Madiba wanted you to know that he has faith in his organisations, in individual citizens, and South Africa as a whole, faith that we will all continue doing what is right for the good of our beloved country.  Freedom and its fruits do not come as gifts to anyone.

We all have to work for it. Like him, let us all try to make that work as joyous as possible.

Because one thing that we can say about Madiba, he has never given the impression that he does not enjoy what he is doing.

As we announce to you the programme of Madiba’s 90th year celebration – “A Celebration of Ideas”, which will demonstrate his, and our, commitment to keeping that freedom alive.

And as I said, we’d wanted to end this by saying “happy birthday, Madiba” but I’m very mindful of my superstitious upbringing, so we’re not going to say that, we’re going to say “Madiba, may this 90th year be a happy one and may we all again gather on that day to say a happy birthday to you”. Thanks very much.