SPEECH BY EXECUTIVE MAYOR ALDERMAN PATRICIA DE LILLE ON THE OCCASION OF THE SIGNING OF THE HANGBERG PEACE ACCORD, September 20 2011
The Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille,
The representative from SanParks,
The people of Hangberg,
The mediator, Brian Williams,
Officials,
Ladies and gentlemen.
We are honoured that you could join us here. For we come here today in the name of peace. We come here today in the name of healing. We come here today in the name of hope. We come here today for the future.
Emerging from the pain and the suffering of the past, we come to join hands. We come to move forward, together. This is a historic day for our city and for the people of Hangberg. Once more, they take their rightful place as a valued and recognised community in our metro.
Today marks the end of a complex peace process, one that has involved months of negotiations, delicate democratic processes and careful agreements. It is an end that brings together a range of diverse interests. It is an end that will ensure that we put violence behind us. It is an end that ensures the continued development of Hangberg.
This agreement will see those who live above the firebreak come down below the firebreak and then back into the Hangberg community below the sloot. In so doing, they will ensure their safety and the safety of their community, especially against fires and floods.