Today, the 16th of December 2004 is celebrated in our 10th year of our Democracy. This day itself had a contested past. Colonialists claimed it as a day on which they were chosen by God. The early resistors saw this day as a day of great sacrifice in the fight against colonialism. And to the liberation movement it represented the launch-pad for the armed resistance to apartheid under Umkhonto we Sizwe. In true South African fashion, we welded such great contestation and divergence into a day we can all identify with and called it Reconciliation Day.
Today we gather at Leeuwenhof, not to change the past, but to reclaim it in the present, to interpret it for our children, to reconcile it for ourselves, and to make it a resource for the future. And what more inspiring way than to honour the legends, the icons, the heroes, the architects, the ordinary men and women whose lives were shaped by that past, whose souls were troubled by injustice, whose spirits were moved into action, and some whose bodies were sacrificed and even a few who grappled with their consciences until they persuaded even their own that change was inevitable. These are the men and women, some still alive, others have passed on - some brutally - who were the kind of people who shaped the freedom we celebrate 10 years of. These are the biographies our youth need to study. This is the true inspiration for the world.
The inspiration of humanity is that none of these people were the same. None of them were simply victims of circumstance. None of them were superhuman. They were not ideologically coherent. They were politically distinct. They were each, characters in their own right. But they all prove the point that the human spirit knows no race. The response of the human spirit to circumstance - good or bad - often depends on whether our minds are enquiring enough, whether our bodies are brave enough, and whether our souls are strong enough.
Those we honour here tonight, diverse as they are, have proven not that they are great, but that greatness is in the grasp of every human being. Greatness is sometimes proven through dying for a cause - and we honour with extreme appreciation and admiration those among the recipients who have paved the road the road to freedom with their blood. But greatness is also about those who live by the principles of their cause. Who turn their acts of human endeavour into acts sanctified by selflessness and sacrifice. Hence tonight we honour those who made their teaching, their healing, their music, their science, their theology, their trade unionism, their sport, their activism, their business and their very living, acts which resonated with the quest for justice, the search for truth and the example worth emulating.
Yet, such creativity necessarily is bred in the freedom to be different, and the responsibility to seek the common future. In recognising the diversity of our recipients, we recognise the diversity of our people in South Africa, but also in our Province.
This Province, more that most other Provinces, yearns simultaneously for this diversity to be acknowledged and for its people to be united. This Province is a confluence of identities. There is the painfully claimed identity of those who trace back their ancestry to the Khoi and the San, and in retracing their footsteps to Autshumato they cannot but inquire: how did we allow the genocide of a people and their language.
There is the almost ashamed acknowledgement that part of our story is the story of slavery - Khoisan, Malay and African - abolished in this Province only 170 years ago, and in the confusion of our complexion and hair textures, we may yet admit that indeed great violence was done unto the slaves of the Cape.
From Bambatha to Nelson Mandela, many before, many in between and many to follow, this Province has striven to make most difficult the life of black Africans, offering them either Robben Island as abode or ensuring that Vrygrond, Crossroads and KTC would forever be symbols of 2 great determinations; the one to remove Africans, the other by Africans to call this Province home.
There is also the identity, simultaneously privileged and tortured, carved in exclusivity, superiority and often brutality. Bearers of both progress and oppression. And yet, today, firmly part of this tapestry of our country and our Province.
These are but some of the identities we carry diversely. But our President has shown us the great possibility of a great unity when he invited us to proclaim with him: "I am an African". He knew, as we all know, that to proclaim "I am an African" is to presuppose that were are also South African, and that to be South African is to possess everything positive that also comes from all our other identities.
This is reconciliation. The reconciliation of people historically divided. The reconciliation of identities previously distorted, trampled, despised. The reconciliation of difference so that the unity of difference sparkles brightly like a mosaic and the whole dazzles with its richness.
Today we invoke chief Albert Luthuli, ANC President and Nobel Peace Laureate, when in 1958 already, in the midst of the most severe repression, he described the South Africa of his dreams as a Home For All. We invoke not only the slogan, but the generosity of spirit, the call for unity, the need for all of us to act together to build a future that is more equal, non-racial, multi-cultural, interfaith, multi-lingual and non-sexist.
This is the Western Cape of our dreams. A Western Cape that is truly a Home For All is the only guarantee of a sustainable and harmonious future, where the deep societal clearages can be overcome, where violence is banished, where we don't call each other offensive names, and where suspicion and mistrust do no lurk on every sports field, in every office, at the workplace and in our communities.
A Western Cape free of these pathologies will be a great Province in a united South Africa where we can all proudly proclaim : "I am an African!"
Tonight we will experience all of these hopes, dreams and aspirations in the music of the Cape - all diverse in origin, but put together in a way that will prove that even if the sounds and identities remain distinct, the alignment, co-operation and harmony makes a greater musical impact.
Putting this kind of pioneering musical ensemble together was not easy. Agreeing on who should be honoured tonight was not easy. Getting all of you together at Leeuwenhof under the protection of Table Mountain was not easy. But it is only the most difficult process that leads to the most spectacular experiences. Tonight will be such an experience.
Congratulations to all who are honoured here tonight. Welcome to all of you who have honoured us by your presence. Let us from tonight, build the Home For All in the Western Cape. Forward to a Great Province in a United South Africa. We cannot change the past, but can build the future.
