As President Thabo Mbeki hailed South Africa’s nation-building achievements at Reconciliation Day celebrations in Pretoria on Thursday, hundreds of Afrikaners held a separate cultural festival elsewhere in the city.
”I know it as a fact that we have begun to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood and sisterhood,” Mbeki told revellers of all hues and backgrounds at Freedom Park in the morning.
”I have seen this with my own eyes that the sons and daughters of those formerly oppressed and the sons and daughters of former oppressors have been able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood and sisterhood.”
South Africans have begun to work together, pray together and struggle together for freedom ”knowing that the freedom we enjoy together is our only guarantee that tomorrow the sun will continue to shine on all of us,” the president said.
At the Voortrekker Monument, an estimated 3 500 Afrikaners, many in traditional Voortrekker dress, gathered to mark the Day of the Covenant — the name of the public holiday under apartheid rule.
The group waved old South African and former Transvaal Republic flags as they sang the apartheid-era national anthem Die Stem.
Monument spokesperson Hennie Streicher said the event was not political, but cultural. It was about giving Afrikaners an opportunity to celebrate their heritage.
The Day of the Covenant used to be celebrated to mark the Voortrekkers’ victory over a Zulu army at Blood River on December 16 1838. Their descendants view the victory as an act of God.
Mbeki said the Day of the Covenant was about celebrating conflicts of the past — about victors and vanquished.
Retaining December 16 as a public holiday had been a deliberate decision — focused on reconciliation among former enemies.
”We sought to emphasise that among us there are no victors and vanquished and that the triumph of a non-racial and non-sexist democracy in our country constitutes an historic victory that belongs to all of us, regardless of who fought on which side.”
Many South Africans, Mbeki said, are too overwhelmed by the country’s outstanding challenges to appreciate what has already been achieved.
Poverty is one such issue.
”As long as this persists … we agree that … democratic South Africa has still not honoured its promissory note to provide a better life for all, that democratic South Africa has given millions of black people a bad cheque that has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’.”
On this day, Mbeki said, South Africans are recommitting themselves to national unity, reconciliation and patriotism.
”We meet to restate the pledge that we will continue to work together, black and white, inspired by a common patriotism, to honour the promissory note delivered by the democratic victory.”
Youth programme launched
Hundreds of South Africans gathered in a luxurious marquee at Freedom Park from early morning to celebrate Reconciliation Day over a champagne lunch. The event was marked by cultural performances and the launch of a youth mobilisation programme.
Freedom Park Trust chairperson Gertrude Shope said the programme aims to mobilise young people through culture, history and patriotism to empower themselves.
This should yield a pool of young people who are patriotic and at the centre of nation-building efforts, she said.
Several young people at the Freedom Park celebrations said they regard the Day of Reconciliation as just another opportunity for a party.
”It really has no significance to me. It is just another public holiday,” said Sean Matshidza (25).
”It’s about partying to me,” said Mosweu Kakanye (25). ”The big question, as far as I’m concerned, is who is reconciling with whom. The meaning is unclear. To me, it’s just another public holiday added to the calendar.”
The Freedom Park celebrations were preceded by an early-morning spiritual cleansing and healing ceremony at the Isivivane memorial site, erected on the premises in memory of South African freedom fighters.
The ceremony, which started at 4.30am, saw rituals performed by traditional healers to call the spirits of 28 freedom fighters who died in exile in the United States. Mbeki and his wife, Zanele, also visited the site.
Among the guests at Thursday’s event were Cabinet ministers and government officials, mayors, political party leaders and foreign representatives, as well as business and traditional leaders. — Sapa