Date: 16/12/2006
Source: The Presidency
Title: Mbeki: Reconciliation Day Isikhumbuto Freedom Park handover


Address of the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, on the occasion of the ceremony to hand over to the nation, Isikhumbuto: Freedom Park, Salvokop, Tshwane

Programme Director, Vuyo Mbuli,
Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan,
other Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Chairperson of the Freedom Park Trust Board, Gertrude Shope,
Chief Executive Office of the Freedom Park Trust, Mongane Wally Serote,
Leaders of the organs of state,
Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Gwen Ramokgopa,
Members of the Freedom Park Board of Trustees and Staff,
Our distinguished guests,
Dr May Nagu, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of the Republic of Tanzania, and Mr Joao Alvez-Monteiro, Deputy Minister of justice of the Republic of Angola,
Your Excellencies, Ambassadors, High Commissioners and Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Distinguished guests,
Comrades,
Ladies and gentlemen'
Fellow South Africans,
Once more, I am deeply honoured to address you on the occasion of our National Day of Reconciliation, and the handing over to the nation of the structures created as part of the Intermediary Phase of the Freedom Park.

It is fitting that we have again gathered at Salvokop, on the national holiday of the Day of Reconciliation, to display to the public the outstanding work-in-progress of the Freedom Park, the fulcrum of our vision to heal and reconcile our nation as we work together to redefine a common and shared identity based on the ideals of freedom, equality and justice.

We undertake our annual pilgrimage to this shrine of the people that tells us of where we come from, why we are where we are today, and how we will continue to strive for a South Africa that truly represents the vision for which many of our heroes and heroines sacrificed their lives, because we recognise the fact that it would be impossible to build a non-racial and non-sexist nation if we were to become indifferent to our past.

We are indeed very happy that the Intermediary Phase of the Park is progressing well with the completion of Isikhumbuto. As the Freedom Park Trust observes, Isikhumbuto represents "a mirror image of the nation's historical consciousness." As the Trust states:

"In order to celebrate and commemorate, we have to remember. In order to remember, we have to reflect and contemplate. In order to reflect and contemplate, we need peace and tranquillity. Designed around our desire to celebrate and commemorate, Sikhumbuto integrates five features where the nation can rejoice and honour the lives of those who contributed to the struggle for humanity and freedom."

Freedom Park is a place of memory, a place that allows us to remember without rancour, and quietly to celebrate the noble achievements of the human spirit. It is an island of peace that invites us to reflect and contemplate, allowing us to descend this hill refreshed, ready further to contribute to a future whose humanism is the very core of the abiding prayer of all South Africans and Africans.

Freedom Park will be a place of hope in which will be embedded the rich history of our country and all humanity. It will represent both a transformed landscape and historical memory intertwined. It will be a place which will hold our memories in incubation, allowing them to nurture a future free of bitterness, free of hatred, free of stereotypes, free of racism, and free of the destructive fury of war.

Today, we honour, on the walls of Sikhumbuto, South Africans, including Charlotte Maxeke, Lilian Ngoyi and Oliver Tambo, as well as Mahatma Gandhi, whose vision and practice of Satyagraha, launched in our country a century ago, we saluted earlier this year, together with the contributions of many other heroes and heroines, including those of the Bambata Rebellion, the Women's March, and the Soweto Uprising, whose sacrifices made it possible for us today to enjoy freedom and democracy.

And beyond our own borders, on our mother continent, we salute and remember among others, Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, Angola's Agostinho Neto, Tanzania's Julius Nyerere and further afield, the outstanding African-Americans scholar and activist for the liberation of Africans everywhere, Dr W E B du Bois, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the hero of the Cuban revolution and Toussaint Louverture who led the heroic revolutionary struggle of African slaves that resulted in the birth of the first Black Republic in Haiti, in 1804.

These extraordinary human beings are among the many acclaimed leaders, as well as the unsung heroes and heroines to whom we owe our gratitude for the gift of freedom - freedom to eradicate the humiliation and anguish of being human cargo treated disdainfully as commodities on the iniquitous global stock exchange of times past, as slaves on plantations or in reservoirs of labour or as the battered footballs of the 20th century Cold War.

Indeed, Freedom Park is not an epitaph. It is a place that resonates with the joy of a celebration of freedom and equality for all people, and a spirit that speaks of a future of ever-growing human fulfilment.

As we gather here on Salvokop to celebrate the development of the Sikhumbuto site and its handover to the nation, we must also remind ourselves of our journey forward, from the wars and conflicts of repression towards the ascension of democracy and the concomitant duty to ensure development, a better life for all our people, and the restoration of the dignity of all our people.

We have come here today to restate our common resolve to continue along the journey towards a truly non-racial and non-sexist future; we have come here, once again, to commit ourselves to our freely chosen path of reconciliation, of healing the wounds of the past and drawing strength from our diversity.

Issued by: The Presidency
16 December 2006