Hon Speaker, hon member, hon Mashabela, that is, yes, unity should not mean forgetting the injustices of the past. The preamble to our Constitution enjoins us to recognise the injustices of the past; it also enjoins us to embark on a journey of doing something about those injustices, together as a nation embarking on a transformative journey. Yes, indeed, rejecting what represented those injustices of the past in the form of colonialism and apartheid.
Transformation must mean that we affirm those who were disadvantaged by the policies of the past and at the same time, while we are on a journey to unite the people of South Africa, taking into account the various concerns that people may raise,
and this we will be able to do in discussion and in active dialogue.
The issue of The Stem, the part of our national anthem is what we arrived as, as a symbol of enabling us to build the nation that we are. And as I said, as we proceed on this basis, compromises, accommodations that need to be mad. And I think that the anthem we have, which is sung in four languages, I once said to one president that I know of no country in a whole world that has a national anthem that is sung at the same time in four languages; in Sesotho, in an Nguni language, in English and in Afrikaans. That is what represents who we are as a nation. [Applause.] And I think we should not reject, we should not reject that which unites us. Everything that unites us we must embrace and we must reject everything that divides us. And if those who hanker for the past want to hanker for the past and for the Vierkleur, know that, that divides us, they must put it aside. We must embrace everything that unites us. Now, [Interjections.]