BY
MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI, MP
CHAIRMAN: THE HOUSE OF TRADITIONAL LEADERS (KWAZULU NATAL)
MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS AND
PRESIDENT, INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
DURBAN: JUNE 27, 2002
I welcome the opportunity to express my support
for the commendable initiative of the Chicago State University to develop a
programme of educational exchange with three of South Africa’s educational
institutions; the University of Zululand, Mangosuthu Technikon and Umlazi
Technical College. At the outset, I wish to thank Dr Elnora Daniel and Dr Adama
Conteh for the leadership they have given in this initiative. I trust that the
workshop which has preceded this evening’s dinner has delivered the
anticipated results and met the expectations of all the team members. As the
workshop draws to a close, it is an honour for me to congratulate everyone
involved in this programme, and to speak on the value of education as the
instrument of liberation.
As an African leader in Africa, I must express
my excitement and gratitude for the way African people in diaspora, are doing
as much as our sisters here are doing for their own people on the continent of
Mother Africa, from which all of us spring. When the giant of Africa is at this
very moment trying to rise to take her place amongst other continents, it is to
me a source of inspiration to see the involvement of outstanding daughters of
Africa such as Dr Elnora Daniel and the former First Lady of Sierra Leone, Dr
Adama Conteh, in the forefront of this important initiative.
"Education for liberation" is a
well-known slogan in KwaZulu Natal. It is the slogan which I myself, as the
then Chief Minister of the erstwhile KwaZulu Government, declared and spread
through the mouths of thousands upon thousands of oppressed South Africans
during the days of apartheid. It is a message I still carry today, believing
that knowledge, skills training and human development are the essential
instruments through which we may finally be free to achieve health, security
and prosperity in South Africa. Education is the instrument of liberation. The
history of our country has given evidence of this truth.
I take personal pleasure in this programme of
the Chicago State University due to my longstanding friendship with the
Government and the people of the United States. For many years, I have
maintained a dialogue with academia, students, businessmen and professionals in
every field, and have come to appreciate the value which the American
experience has to offer my own country. I have always supported exchanges
between our two countries, whether cultural, economic or educational. I take
pride also in what South Africans have to offer, which is often a lesson in
determination, courage and tenacity.
I believe that South Africa’s soil is yet to
birth some of the brightest young minds of the next generation. There is
nothing backward about our people, but there is much we may benefit from
learning.
It has been encouraging therefore to receive
reports from the past few days of this workshop, bearing testimony to the
initial success of the programme. I trust that the participating students and
faculty have received the full benefit of the contributions of funding, time,
effort, initiative and goodwill which has made this programme a success. In
gathering to share experiences and to collegially determine how the programme
may be adjusted to ensure continually increasing benefit, the students,
faculty, programme leaders and stakeholders in the various fields are forging
an invaluable opportunity for future participants.
As a lifelong champion of education, I am
acutely aware of the importance of programmes like this. Throughout my career
in politics and public life, I have advocated the broadening of experience and
exposure for all South Africans. I believe that man may only grow beyond his
present limitations when he is able to reach out of his present surroundings
and experience what is different, foreign or new. We live in an age of rapidly
changing paradigms. What we knew yesterday becomes obsolete today. It is a
constant coming out of the shell. It is a constant epiphany of new realisation.
For many of those who participate in this programme, its greatest value will be
that of being exposed to completely different realities to the one in which
they were born and raised.
In the case of this exchange programme, the
participants have benefited not only from experiencing new surroundings and
different cultural lifestyles, but from techniques, training, approaches and
information unavailable at their own campus. Effectively, this programme offers
a holistic learning experience which develops skills and capacity while also
developing the character of each participant.
Perhaps the greatest value of this programme,
however, lies in the long-term result, as participants return and implement
their knowledge and experience within their own communities. I must
congratulate the team of Chicago State University for their insightful
selection of fields for exchange. In South Africa, issues of health, security
and prosperity demand our attention at every level of society. The HIV/AIDS
crisis demands that we train sufficient nurses to carry the burden of an
extremely large HIV/AIDS population. We are fighting the battle against the
spread of this disease from every possible angle, but ultimately we must be
able to take care of and treat those who are already suffering, and anticipate
that there will still be many more sufferers requiring medical treatment before
the end of this crisis.
I am appreciative of the valuable research
undertaken by Dr Patricia Sloane in respect of this issue. Having understood
the needs and circumstances in our Durban hospitals, Dr Sloane equipped the
programme to focus on the skills needed to meet the realities our nurses face
each day. I trust that the experience gained by the two University of Zululand
students at Chicago State University will enable them to assist in the
development of more effective techniques to engage the challenge of treating
the many HIV/AIDS sufferers in this Province. Here once again education has
become a tool of liberation. Greater knowledge and greater skills will free our
nurses to attend to more patients, more effectively, and the patients
themselves may be freed from undue suffering.
The programme’s intention to open exchange
opportunities for teaching staff in the field of criminal justice and law
enforcement has left a particularly deep impression on me. I am aware of the
funding provided by the Umlazi branch of the South African Police Services to
the University of Zululand for the development of programmes focusing on basic
administrative skills required in policing. I am also aware of the urgent need
in KwaZulu Natal for dedicated policemen and women who have the training not
merely to apprehend a criminal, but to complete the process by which justice is
finally served. Criminality is a serious threat in South Africa. Securing the
rule of law demands that every link in the system of justice be properly
educated and trained to effectively fulfil its mandate. I hope that in the
future this programme of exchange may find itself in a position to place
emphasis on the field of law enforcement.
The exchange and interaction of the
participating institutions in the field of global business is a valuable
initiative in the present climate of our country. Entrepreneurship is one of
our great economic pillars. The world is changing and we must be part of that
change. For the first time in mankind’s history, cultures, peoples, nations
and communities are coming together in a global village. It is happening here
and it is happening now. It is not happening at the initiative of a conquering
power or because of the actions of a demented tyrant with ambitions of world
domination. It is happening at the instance of a multitude of people and
interests moved by the forces of freedom. We must ensure that we empower our
own people within our own country to become part of that great phenomenon which
is now known as globalization.
Globalization is not the making of any
government. It is happening in spite of what any government may wish. Indeed,
it is happening against the will of many governments. It is the power of
consumers and opinion-makers which is making it all happen. A process has begun
that no government can plan or direct. Our responsibility is that of empowering
South African citizens to fully participate in it. Exchange programmes such as
this one are extremely important to achieve such an end.
As we celebrate the success of this programme of
exchange, it would be remiss not to mention with due gratitude the role of the
United States Agency for International Development. There are many remarkable
things about the US Government which are not fully appreciated by people around
the world. There are countless programmes that the Government of the United
States has constantly enabled to happen, around the world and in our country.
They represent a stream of aid and assistance which flows out of the United
States in a million ripples. It is remarkable that none of this assistance has
ever ceased, even when the United States has been affected by great economic
crisis, or even during its engagement in the war on terror. Programmes may
change, but the American attitude to give and assist throughout the world has
not changed. On an occasion such as this, it is incumbent upon us to
acknowledge this and express our gratitude.
We must express our gratitude not only for what
this assistance means, but also for what it stands for. It undoubtedly means
that there is recognition that the world is a global place, that we all share
responsibility for making it work at its best and redressing its internal
imbalances and injustices. However, it also stands to signify the American
optimism and confidence that seeds planted in foreign soils are able to
germinate into valuable outcomes. Time and again the American Government has
been confronted by many programmes which have failed their objectives or could
not show immediate and tangible results. However, those programmes were not
terminated, due to a faith in the intangible value that exchange programmes
bring about.
I hope that one of such intangibles will be that
of infusing a greater measure of the American spirit into the life and social
dynamics of South Africa. Those who will be visiting the United States and
those who have already done so, are not only South Africa’s ambassadors of
goodwill abroad, but also the conveyors of American optimism and ways of life
into their own communities here. The greatest portion of what they have learned
is embodied and retained in how they have changed and how they have grown.
First and foremost, exchange programmes, especially in the United States, offer
the opportunity for great personal growth. One need not fear changing, for that
is what growth is all about.
I have noticed how many of those who go to the
United States come back radically changed. They are more direct, more
efficient, more capable and, in the final analysis, they are more their true
selves. It is the blossoming of one’s own God-given potentials in an
environment of freedom which stimulates individual growth. We have much to
learn from those who have undertaken this personal journey and it is their
responsibility to share their experience with all of us so that within our
communities things may also change for the better.
In respect of those who have come here to South
Africa as students or educators, I am sure they too have learned a great deal
and that their own learning has been part of their human growth. I would not
have the presumption to guess what our country may have contributed to teaching
them. Nonetheless, I hope that they will take home with them the vision of a
country committed to grow and improve on its present conditions. Our problems
are real. The suffering of our people is real. The challenges confronting our
people on a daily basis are real. In our country, life has a measure of
intensity and a taste of reality which may not be common to developed areas of
the world.
Yet our dreams are equally real, as is our
tenacity to pursue them. Our dreams are not different from those which once
characterised the fears and aspirations of the American pilgrims, or those who
sought new fortunes when seeking a new frontier in the far West of the American
continent. However, the realisation of our dreams and our very capacity to
dream with an intensity which may enable us to make them a reality, are held
back by the legacy of past tragedies and by the present sense of impotence and
despair.
The past overshadows the dreams of the future.
Our present afflictions project a heavy burden on all of us as we are
confronted on a daily basis by the inadequacy of our actions. At times, we in
government have the feeling that the more we do to redress present social
imbalances and past injustices, the more remains to be done. We do not have the
privilege early Americans did of starting from scratch. We need to deal with
the legacy of the past before we can seize the promises of our future. The most
important aspect of such legacy is that of ensuring that all our people are
freed from the shackles of ignorance for lack of education, knowledge and
exposure.
I am always reminded of the platonic myth of the
cave where people are born in shackles and forced to watch shadows on the walls
created by the light from outside. They believe the shadows are the reality and
it is only when their shackles are broken through the acquisition of knowledge
that they can turn around and see how reality is indeed what is happening
outside the cave. Each of us undertakes this process of growth and inner
transformation during our life’s journey. We as a nation must now embark on a
similar journey. This is a very hard and perilous journey. It is more difficult
to change a nation and promote its growth than it is for an individual to
undertake the same process.
As we convene on an occasion such as this, we
are all agents of change and, as such, we must accept that change is often
difficult and not always welcome. There is a natural feature in human nature
which resists change and tends to conserve what is known and familiar rather
than exchange it for the unsettling features of the unknown. As agents of
change, our primary responsibility is to infuse part of the American optimism
that tomorrow is going to be better than today, and that therefore the old is
bad because the new is going to be better.
The fortunes of a nation are forged by the moral
fortitude, the optimism, the tenacity and the initiative of its people. I have
been a longstanding friend of the Republic of Taiwan and I have seen how
originally ill-equipped and poorly educated people stranded on an island with
no natural resources built their future by placing emphasis on education and
change. They accepted the journey which would lead them to become profoundly
different from what they were when they started, with no initial awareness of
the final destination.
I hope that the whole of South Africa as a
nation will one day adopt the theme of education for liberation as its
long-term vision and manifesto. True liberation will only come when all our
people are free from the yoke of ignorance, bigotry, superstition and lack of
education. Today, we have made an important albeit small step in that
direction. It is our responsibility to continue to move in that direction to
ensure that the message which rises from this workshop resounds beyond its
originally intended parameters. In exchanging their experiences, the
participants are sending a message which, in my opinion, has relevance for the
whole of our country. Let us learn more, let us change as we learn and let us
continue to learn, learn and learn so that we can grow into a nation of
economic prosperity and social stability which my generation has so often
envisaged in its post-liberation dreams.
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