They come here to hear what you have in store for them to liberate them from poverty, despair and dejection.
They come here, hon Minister, trusting that you would unveil to them programmes that will restore their dignity and those that fell in war. Minister, this is a sector of our society that has faith in you, more so that you too are a military veteran and that, at last, we are led by a politician and her deputy who come from the military. [Applause.] Represented here are men and women who have been shown recognition by this Minister when she was the Minister of Housing in the previous administration. Look what MK has produced.
It is always good to remind people where we come from for them to understand what we are about - that South Africa was at war, something that we seem to have conveniently obliterated from our history. This war was waged against a people by a regime whose policy was declared a crime against humanity by the world and the international community in the progressive world.
There were those young men, women and children of the 60s, 70s and 80s generation who took on the mighty apartheid regime head on, and left South Africa to learn the skills of war in order to return and fight the enemy to liberate its people. Most of them were very young, with no matric, but armed with a patriotic qualification - the love for our people. [Applause.]
Some of the combatants whose military and other contributions are being recognised with the elevation of the Directorate of Military Veterans to the level of a Ministry, fought in the 1967 Wankie military operation where MK combatants were determined to reach deeper into the then Rhodesia and eventually enter South Africa. Again, Ntate Maphoto, you represent that glorious generation. [Applause.]
Comrade Lambert Malloy, sitting at the podium as well, you represent the leadership of MK that brought about the changes that we are experiencing today. [Applause.]
uMkhonto weSizwe was an armed formation whose mission was to pursue a guerrilla war against the apartheid forces in defence of the oppressed people, while at the same time supporting the political programme of the ANC. In fact, the emergence of this guerrilla army occurred after a long political struggle of the ANC since its formation, a political struggle which assumed different forms at different times.
During the period between its formation and the emergence of MK, political activities were peaceful. However, the firing at and killing of unarmed and peaceful demonstrators in Sharpeville ...