House Chairperson, long live Madiba! Long live! It is an honour for me today - I thank God - to speak about a great freedom fighter, a volunteer-in-chief, a commander-in-chief, a political strategist and a revolutionary. It is an honour for me to speak about Madiba, a man that I knew through a song sung by Miriam Makheba, entitled Nongqongqo (To Those We Love), a banned song that my father played for me. I want to say today that Madiba was known as a terrorist until 1990. That was when people realised that Madiba was a person. He was a terrorist to those who today praise him like he is their own.
I want to say that it is time for this Parliament to honour Madiba. I believe it is time for us to have a statue of Madiba outside Parliament, at the entrance there, because he is the man who brought this freedom that we speak about in the democratic Parliament. There is still space for Gen Louis Botha, perhaps next to Queen Victoria on the side, but it is time for Madiba to represent the real Parliament. I pray for these processes that are happening through the Minister of Arts and Culture to start so that when Heritage Day comes ...
... uMadiba sakube singena emnyango sijonge yena, hayi lo singamaziyo [... we can see Madiba when we enter through the door, not this one, whom we do not even know.]
I am reminding this House, because we should not lose sight of the fact that this country has a history - a very painful history - and deep scars that still show. Today, there are those who wish to appropriate the name of Mandela and claim that they are the true proponents of his legacy. This has more to do with political parties struggling to have an identity or whose philosophy is the replica of the deep-seated conservatism, which claims history and even relates the importance of their party to something that rewrites and distorts their history.
I want to quote Mandela as a strategist and as a negotiator when he, responding to P W Botha's killing of the children of Soweto in 1985 by sending his daughter Zinzi to the rally in Orlando Stadium - that was my first experience of a rally then - said:
What freedom am I being offered while the organisation of the people remains banned?
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.
Out of that pain, we must build a new society that Mandela had a vision of long before he was incarcerated on Robben Island as the leader of the ANC and the oppressed masses. [Interjections.] I wish you would listen because I am giving you a political education here. Madiba directed us to move in that direction in his inauguration address in 1994, when he declared that -
out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.
We are speaking of a President who, at the time, brought the issues of women, the youth and children under the Presidency, to nurture and support them. Mandela was a freedom fighter. The role that Madiba played in the Defiance Campaign was depicted in how he carried himself as the chief volunteer. He was a founding member of the ANC Youth League in 1944, something that brought change and led to the Defiance Campaign. The strategy was to be repeated for decades to follow in the liberation struggle.
Madiba was also instrumental in the preparations for the drafting and adoption of the Freedom Charter by the Congress of the People - the real one - in 1955. This resulted in him being requested to author the M-Plan by the ANC leadership, a strategy document on how the ANC could operate underground, given the repression. Dubbed the M-Plan, Madiba's strategy proposed the reorganisation of ANC branches into small cells to enable the leadership to maintain dynamic contact with the membership without calling meetings.
Madiba moved up to the north and joined the military wing of the ANC, uMkhonto weSizwe. The rules were clearly defined: sabotage strategic outposts to scare away foreign capital and weaken the economy so as to force the government into talks. Madiba was the first commander-in-chief of uMkhonto weSizwe. He left the country illegally and visited Ethiopia and Algeria. He received his military training in Algeria.
When it was launched, MK issued its historic manifesto with these timeless words:
The time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight. That time has come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means within our power in defence of our people, our future and our freedom.
The first meeting between President Mandela and the National Party government took place in 1985, when he met the then Minister of Justice, Kobie Coetsee, in the Volks Hospital while Madiba was recovering from surgery. Over the next four years, a series of tentative meetings took place, laying the ground for further contact and further negotiations. It was Madiba who demanded the release of four political prisoners from Robben Island: Mr Matthew Meyiwa, Mr Elphas Mdlalose, Mr Anthony Xaba, and Mr John Nene. They had been left behind when Comrades Walter Sisulu, Raymond Mhlaba and the others were released.
After a lot of behind-the-scenes manoeuvring, on 2 February 1990, President De Klerk announced Madiba's release in Parliament. It was a massive victory for the ANC and its allies. The release of Mandela in 1990, the freeing of other prisoners, and the unbanning of the organisation was not a miracle, as is commonly believed, but the product of strategies and revolution. It was a day of joy in South Africa. The black messiah was out to save his own people.
As the first President of the democratically elected government, President Mandela was an exceptional President for both the ANC and the government. He carried the values and policies of the ANC to his task in government, promoting national reconciliation, forgiveness and national unity. He was truly the President South Africa needed during that fragile transition period. We are also grateful to Madiba for laying a firm foundation for the transformation of our country during the first 10 years of democracy, five of which were under his leadership. A total of 789 laws or amendments aimed at reconfiguring South African society by removing apartheid laws were approved by this Parliament.
In conclusion, I want to say happy birthday, Tata uMadiba, on your 94th year, and we pray that God may keep you for many more years. On this day, we are called upon to display the same selfless characteristics of dedication, commitment and loyalty to Madiba that he has shown to the nation. Madiba was made by the ANC; he will always remain a member of the ANC, and let us make the 67 minutes not only a July month issue but a daily issue.