ADDRESS BY
MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI, MP
MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS
PRESIDENT, INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
RICHARDS BAY : NOVEMBER 9. 2002
Mr Master of Ceremonies, Dr TP Naidoo,
President of Indian Academy; all amaKhosi present; our guests of honour, the
Honourable RV Deshpande, Minister for Medium and Large Industries of the
Republic of India; the Honourable Sri Ajit Kumar, Consul-General of the
Republic of India in Durban; Mr Sri Raman, Managing Director, Karnataka
Udyog Mitra; Dr Jogi Subramaniam, Chief Scientist and Head of Production,
Bangalore; Mr KJ Joy, Music Director and Vice President in South Africa; Mr
KN Shanker, Civil Engineer/Builder in Bangalore; Mr K Jayshunker, Trade
Facilitator, Karnataka/uThungulu; His Worship the Mayor of uThungulu
District Municipality, Cllr BV Mthethwa; His Worship the Mayor of Umhlathuze,
Dr DJB Moffat; the Honourable Mr Narend Singh, Minister of Environmental
Affairs and Agriculture who represents the Premier of KwaZulu Natal at this
function; the Honourable Mr M Mabuyakhulu, the Minister of Economic
Development and Tourism; Professor LBG Ndabandaba, the Minister of Education
and Culture; Mr SV Naicker, MPP; Mrs FX Gasa, MPP; Dr Rajesh Kumar of the
Divine Life Society of South Africa; other Mayors and Councillors present;
other distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
It gives me great pleasure to be officiating
at an occasion of this nature. This celebration of the arrival of the first
Indian settlers in South Africa is an occasion of great national importance.
When we talk about promoting an African Renaissance we must keep in mind the
multi-faceted nature of our population’s make-up. South Africa is a unique
place and its renaissance must highlight its diverse composition. We can
only celebrate our true self if we provide equal value and recognition to
all the many individual and collective sacrifices, acts of heroism and
courage, and great endeavours and undertakings which have enabled our
country to be built into and become what it presently is. I am not one of
those who runs South Africa down. I am proud of South Africa and remain
incurably optimistic about its future, in spite of the enormous problems we
have. My optimism is not an effort to sweep our problems under the carpet.
I know that we have major problems and that
we are far from being what our country ought to be, but remain confident
that we have within ourselves the strength, capacity and wisdom to turn
South Africa into a much better place for all. It is from this platform of
appreciation for all we have in our country and optimism for the future,
that I feel an overwhelming sense of respect and compassion for all those
who struggled harshly and endured untold sufferings to bring us to where we
are. Among such unsung heroes and heroines are undoubtedly the first
pilgrims from India who landed on our shores from on board the Truro on
November 16, 1860.
We must take pride in this historical event
and be deeply and humbly aware of the chain of actions and consequences
which it set in place. To a certain extent, November 16, 1860 was as much of
a destiny-determining time as was the arrival on the American shores of the
first pilgrims aboard the Mayflower. However, while Americans take pride in
that historical event and recollect what happened at that time when they
teach history to their children and when they practice their culture, I fear
that in South Africa we have not given equal recognition to the arrival of
the Truro to our shores. Perhaps those who were carried by the Truro might
not have had such an impact in shaping the future of South Africa as did the
Mayflower’s pilgrims in the making of America, but I firmly feel that
their impact on the making of South Africa and their symbolic importance in
our national and collective consciousness, ought not to be under-estimated.
South Africa would not be what it is today without the contribution of the
descendants of those who were delivered by the Truro on our shores.
Simply and plainly put, without the blood,
sweat, suffering and toil of the people of the Truro and the many more
Indians who followed them, South Africa would not be what it is today and
would not enjoy the levels of prosperity, development and stability which we
now have, and which, albeit far below our intended goals and aspirations,
are nonetheless superior to those enjoyed anywhere else in sub-Saharan
Africa. The pilgrims from the Mayflower did not engage on a perilous and
uncertain voyage to land on the American shores completely of their own
accord. They were pushed out of their homes and countries by religious
intolerance. They abandoned prosperous and developed societies to face the
unknown in a land where there was no comparable development. However, they
believed that with the help of God and their tireless toil and
industriousness they could build a better future, if not for themselves,
then surely for their posterity, and, indeed, they did.
Similarly, those who engaged in the perilous
and uncertain journey across the Indian Ocean, did not leave India
completely of their own accord. They committed the greatest sacrifice known
to man. Of their own accord, they became slaves, or indentured labourers, so
that one day they could become free, and, if not on their horizon, freedom
could one day shine on the horizon of their children and grandchildren. May
God bless these unsung heroes. I feel that many South Africans do not know
enough about who these Indians were, why they embarked on an often
life-threatening journey, and of the harshness of the conditions under which
they decided to leave India. We do not know enough about the conditions of
life with which they were confronted during the many years, many decades and
many generations through which they provided their hard work. We can only
imagine their suffering. As we imagine their suffering, we can also imagine
how in their heart of hearts a call echoed, instilling in them the hope of
future freedom. I have no doubt that this echoing call for freedom is what
kept them going and gave them the courage to keep enduring the harshness of
their lives.
The Indian community of today is the final
depository of that call for freedom and final social redemption, which call
has been passed down the generations. I respect and salute the Indian
communities because I know that the level of prosperity they have achieved
in South Africa is the direct result of their industriousness and hard work.
It has been built by the hard work of many generations, by what is proven to
be one of the most self-reliant people of Africa. South Africa is proud of
this legacy. We are proud of living in a country which in its complex
make-up can count on such an important lesson and example of self-help and
self-reliance. Throughout my life I have taught, preached and advocated
self-help and self-reliance as the tool through which not only social
upliftment can be achieved, but also through which we can promote the
individual and collective human growth of our people. A child becomes a man
when he stands on his own feet and is no longer reliant on others, either
from a material or a psychological viewpoint.
Adulthood is about being able to provide for
oneself, and being aware of who we are and what we need without using other
people’s perceptions as our frame of reference or means of self
identification. These lessons of self-reliance are now as relevant and
crucially necessary in our country as they have ever been before. They mark
the path of growth for many of our people.
Examples of these lessons can be found
throughout the history of South Africa and, undoubtedly, one of the
brightest of them all lies in the extraordinary lives of the about 150,000
Indians who arrived on South African shores between 1860 and 1911. About
half of them decided to stay and elected to consider themselves as part and
parcel of this land and as true South Africans. This is a great lesson in
self-reliance as it proves that even though away from their native soil,
these people had sufficient confidence and sense of self to be able to
create their own identity as South Africans. In so doing, they did not
relinquish their culture or their traditions. If anything, they reached an
even greater appreciation of most segments of their cultures and their
traditions. However, they found themselves in the fortunate position of
being able to choose what portions of their cultures and traditions they
would retain, and what they could do without. Much was retained, but many of
the elements of the hierarchic, oppressive and class-orientated features of
Indian cultures of the second part of the 19th century, were not
reproduced in the forging of a new Indian community on the African soil.
This was an important element in the renewal and regeneration of a people
which preserved its identity while starting anew from the hardest possible
point of departure and decided to do so by building right away a better
community on better values than the one they had left behind. They
implemented freedom and progress amongst themselves as freedom and progress
became available to them, and as fast as their emancipation could be
achieved.
The fortunes of mankind depend on the quality
of people, not on their social status. There is no doubt that from many
viewpoints those who left India to come to South African shores were not
from the highest level of the Indian social structure. They were not the
most educated and, indeed, most of them were illiterate. Truly, most of them
were regarded as rejects within the circles of Indian societies and as
lesser people. Many of them were also not amongst the healthiest as many
suffered from malnutrition and bore the toll of abject social and economic
conditions. Not dissimilar were the conditions of those who emigrated from
Europe to populate what then became the United States and Australia. The
progeny of those whom European aristocracy regarded as rejects, rose to
establish a new culture and eventually shape and dominate the world we now
live in. To me, that proves beyond doubt what should otherwise be a
self-evident axiom, namely that all men are created equal, and are equally
endowed by the same loving God with the same measure of God-given natural
rights and talents.
The South African Indian community proved
these truths beyond any doubt as it invested its originally very scarce
resources into the education of their children and the uplifting of their
social and economic condition so that each subsequent generation could
surpass their fathers’ one, not only in terms of economic prosperity but
also in terms of education, knowledge and awareness. Young generations
should never forget this process, because it was through this process that
the Indian community of South Africa grew and provided a contribution to the
South African development in a variety of fields ranging from medicine to
agriculture and from retail to learning institutions. The contribution of
the Indian community to our country has not yet been fully assessed and not
fully appreciated. However, I am less concerned about the past than I am
about the future. In piercing the clouds which shield the future from human
sight, I have no doubt that without the need for any great clairvoyance, I
can see how the Indian community will have an ever-increasing and ever more
prominent role to play in the making and growth of the new South Africa.
South Africa must rely also on the legacy of stamina, industriousness and
optimism which has indeed been bestowed not only on the Indian community but
on all of us by the great adventurous journey which once began with the
departure of the Truro.
If we look back at the milestones of the
journey we can easily see how what has been consumed in South Africa has
indeed changed not only our land but the whole world. It was the journey of
the Truro which planted the seeds which prompted and enabled Mahatma Gandhi
to reside in Phoenix in this Province in our Indian community where he began
forming and spreading his message of passive resistance and non-violence.
Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent teachings, which to a great extent were
formed amongst the progeny of the pilgrims of the Truro, have changed world
consciousness forever, and have set a new standard against which the
legitimacy of any exercise of power has since been measured. After Mahatma
Gandhi’s entrance on the stage of history, might could no longer assert
itself as being right, and it become widely recognized that the rightness of
mightiness could only rest not on force but on moral grounds. Since then,
the world has known many situations in which peoples with no might have
overcome mighty countries because of their having seized and maintained the
moral high ground.
I regard myself as a child of Mahatma Gandhi
as I myself have followed his teachings throughout my life, weathering the
political storms with satyagraha when others chose to take up arms
and resort to violence and intimidation as the tools by means of which they
sought to promote our liberation struggle. In the end, the call for
negotiation, negotiation and more negotiation, which I had promoted since
the mid-seventies, finally triumphed, and the world watched in awe as South
Africa engaged in a peaceful and negotiated transition from apartheid to
democracy. I cannot help but believe that in the complex alchemy which made
this miracle possible, a role was played by the ever-present legacy which
the people who undertook the voyage of the Truro bestowed on South Africa.
The passion for liberation and the endurance to wait for the time when
liberation could arrive, are indeed features of the individual and
collective stories of the many indentured Indians who came to South Africa.
Many of such stories are microcosms which
reflect and represent a collective tragedy underpinned by a quest for
liberation. For instance, I can mention the struggle of Mr ML Sultan who,
with many other people, signed that dreadful indenture contract by virtue of
which he agreed to surrender his freedom, become a slave and to work as a
slave in South Africa. As an indentured labourer, he left India and
undertook a sea journey which almost killed him before he arrived in Natal.
He begun working for ten shillings a month, but there are records which show
that even at that time he nourished in his heart a vision which would prove
greater than the oppression of his circumstances. His willpower sustained
him. Through hard work and industriousness, coupled with sheer undaunted
determination, Mr Sultan saved enough money to pay for his ransom and free
himself from the enslavement of poor social and economic conditions. He
proceeded to build considerable wealth. He obviously understood that he was
not an isolated person, but was part of a collective tragedy, which made it
such that his redemption could not be achieved unless it was productive of
at least the seeds of the future liberation of the whole.
For this reason, Mr Sultan bequeathed almost
his entire wealth to the Sastri College, so that the technical branch which
now carries his name could be developed. By bequeathing the gift of
education, he bequeathed the gift of redemption and liberation, for he
understood that only through study and education could future generations of
Indians achieve better social and economic conditions than their
forefathers. This lesson is as valid now as it was then, and applies to all
our people. Indeed because of Mr Sultan’s generosity Africans, Coloureds,
Indians and all people who were not regarded as Whites, could access
technical education and share in the dream of freedom and liberation. I
myself had the opportunity and privilege of studying at the Sastri College
after I was expelled from Fort Hare University because of my political
militancy in the ANC Youth League. I did not study at the technical branch,
but I benefitted enormously from being part and parcel of the Indian
community as a student at the non-white section of the University of Natal
which gathered at that college, where I formed life-long friendships and
partnerships with many comrades in our liberation struggle such as Ismail
and Fatima Meer.
Since then I have felt like and have remained
a member of the Indian community, as my friends over the years in the Indian
community are legion. Some were students with me at the University of Fort
Hare. For more than 30 years I have been a customer at a shop in
Johannesburg owned by Indians, from which I get my clothing. The indian
community has made tremendous sacrifices to uplift my people. In this
Province in particular I can mention hundreds of projects, most of these
being schools and clinics, which the Indian community through organisations
such as the Divine Life Society of South Africa, have built for many of our
African communities. We are greatly indebted to them for many other things,
including exemplary acts of compassion, which are praiseworthy for the human
race.
Throughout my life, and almost half a century
of leadership in politics, I have been committed to fostering dialogue and
partnership amongst the different cultures, races, language groups and
ethnicities of the many whom we call South Africans. I have pursued
reconciliation and unity at all costs. I have admiration and respect for the
history, tragedies and aspirations of all the ethnic groups which comprise
our country. We have all suffered at one juncture or the other. Before they
had it easy, the Afrikaners also had it very hard, and many of them also
came to this land fleeing religious persecution and intolerance. They also
struggled to remain a community and to build prosperity. They also broke
their ties with their original culture and asserted themselves as a
self-reliant people and as true South Africans, so much so that they called
themselves the Africans. I would like to welcome the presence of the
distinguished visitors from the Republic of India who are here today. We
welcome the presence of the Honourable RV Deshpande, the Minister for Medium
and Large Industries in India, and his delegation from India. Their
presence, as well as the presence of the Honourable Consul-General of the
Republic of India in Durban, Sri Ajit Kumar, has added a very special lustre
to this occasion.
We must now all come together recognising
that we are all the product of the tragedies of the past. We must ensure
that the empathy which streams out of our shared or divided past, brings us
together in the recognition that we are now one nation, which must now share
with equal pride what brought us to where we are, and that which made us who
we are. In becoming what I am, I have often thought about the men and women
who disembarked the Truro to step into the African unknown. I am sure that
on this occasion they are looking upon us with a sense of satisfaction,
taking pride in seeing how the seeds of their sacrifices have generated the
opportunities we now have. Let us not dare miss out on these opportunities.
Let us not disappoint those whose sacrifices made those opportunities
possible. South Africa is faced with great opportunities which we can now
seize and benefit from, if we accept to work together as a nation,
irrespective of the divisions which characterised our past.
We can succeed in fulfilling our country’s
destiny if each of us finally accepts responsibility for all of us. No one
can live in isolation any longer. The plight and poverty of one is the
demise of all. We must build a society which is finally liberated from the
enslavement of poverty and ignorance for lack of education, and a society
which is fair, just and equitable for all. We must build a society which is
equally just to all South Africans. We must eradicate poverty and abject
social and economic conditions. Only by doing so will we fulfil the dreams
of those who embarked on the journey of the Truro. I believe that on this
occasion the best way of commemorating that fateful journey is undoubtedly
that of re-affirming our shared commitment to continuing the arduous journey
towards emancipation and liberation which was begun on November 16, 1860.
The road of this journey remains long and uphill, but I trust that our
present generations shall endure it with as much courage, faith, vision and
determination as the many unsung heroes or heroines of the Truro.
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