Freedom Day speech: Aluta Continua - The Struggle Continues

Note to editors: This is a copy of a speech prepared for delivery at the DA's Freedom Day celebration at Solomon Mahlangu Freedom Square, Mamelodi.

My fellow South Africans,

Tomorrow is Freedom Day.

It is the most important day on our political calendar. It marks the moment in 1994 that we, the people of South Africa, first tasted freedom.

For those of us who were there, April 27 1994 will live in our memories to our last breath. And for those who come after us, it will live in history as a beacon illuminating the triumph of humanity over inhumanity.

I would like to use this moment to remember where we come from. Because it is only with our past in mind that we can take on the future and take forward the struggle for a better life.

My fellow South Africans, the Apartheid system was an affront - an often violent affront - to the very notion of humanity. By degrading some of us, it degraded us all.

Oppression is always driven by the worst instincts of human kind - greed, fear, hatred.  It is sustained by a callous indifference to the suffering of others.

Whenever I pause for a moment and remember, I can feel the atmosphere that enveloped our country in the 1960s and 70s and 80s. I can feel the anger and the fear. And I remember the long shadow violence cast, hovering over the land like a funeral shroud, burying our hopes and our dreams for a better future.

But today is also a day to remember those who resisted the inhumanity of oppression and fought to overcome it.

There are the heroes who inspired us: Luthuli, Ghandi, Mandela, Tambo, Sisulu, Brown, Paton, Suzman, Hani. And many besides.

There are also the millions whose names were not captured in the headlines, but who fought back every day for generations, and in the end, triumphed.

Our constitution, with  a Bill of Rights at its heart,  protects us all.  It is our collective response to the oppression of Apartheid. It is founded on the best of what humanity has to offer: dignity, a love of freedom, a commitment to equality and the embrace of tolerance.

My fellow South Africans, we are privileged to be here today, living our freedom under a constitution that cherishes our humanity. So many lived and died without knowing this feeling. Let us remember them today. But in vanquishing a system of oppression, we have not erased the past.

None of us escaped Apartheid unscathed. Its legacy lives on and oppresses us still.

If we are to escape Apartheid's shadow, we must comprehend in full the legacy we have inherited. It has two components, and both must be confronted.

First, there is the material cost of the past, and its name is poverty. We cannot claim freedom while millions of our compatriots are in need of life's bare necessities.

Our struggle must therefore be to offer people pathways out of poverty, and the passport to those pathways is a job. Our economy is capable of providing our people with work and the opportunities that flow from it. And so our task is to create the conditions for growth and jobs and give every South African a stake in the future.

We must also ensure that we provide a safety net for those who cannot access an income and life's necessities on their own. We must care by doing: by governing well, by delivering for all, by treating every person with the respect their humanity compels.

The second component of Apartheid's legacy is not material. It is emotional.

An abusive system leaves everyone scarred. Let us be honest and give name to the feelings that oppress us still. There is anger and resentment, natural human responses to humiliation. There is a deficit of confidence and self-esteem. There is embarrassment and guilt. And there is that most pernicious of responses to our past, the anti-feeling that is denial. In all of us, there is a yearning to be seen and heard; to be understood.

We cannot engage these feelings nor reconstruct our relationship with ourselves and each other, by means of confrontation. And we cannot overcome the feelings that oppress us in court rooms.

Nelson Mandela showed us the way forward. Reconciliation takes courage and generosity. And it takes time.

I feel that we have lost our way a little; that we have wandered off the road to reconciliation. Let's find our way back, and commit ourselves to keep travelling that road until we reach our destination.

I want to say something to every representative, member and supporter of my party, the DA.

The struggle continues.

Our purpose in politics is to overcome the legacy of apartheid and usher in a new kind of society, in which every person has the right and the means to live a life they value.

Our purpose in politics is to vanquish poverty in our country, so that every person can taste the fruits of freedom.

Our purpose in politics is to reconcile South Africans to each other. Let others divide; we will unite.

When we campaign, let it be on this basis. Where we govern, let it be to this end.

To my fellow South Africans, I say this: each person in South Africa has the right to support the party of their choice.  That is part of what freedom means.
If you choose to support the DA, you are choosing to continue the struggle for dignity, opportunity and reconciliation. Mindful of our past, you are choosing to help take South Africa forward. We are not perfect, but with your support we will become better, and better able to give every South African the chance for a better life.

Issued by the Democratic Alliance, April 26 2011

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