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Your Majesties, Your
Highnesses, Distinguished Guests, Comrades and
Friends.
Today, all of us do,
by our presence here, and by our celebrations in
other parts of our country and the world, confer
glory and hope to newborn liberty. 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.
Our daily deeds as
ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South
African reality that will reinforce humanity's
belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the
nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes
for a glorious life for all. All
this we owe both to ourselves and to the peoples of
the world who are so well represented here today.
To my compatriots, I
have no hesitation in saying that each one of us is
as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful
country as are the famous jacaranda trees of
Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld. Each time one of us
touches the soil of this land, we feel a sense of
personal renewal. The national mood changes as the
seasons change. We
are moved by a sense of joy and exhilaration when
the grass turns green and the flowers bloom. That
spiritual and physical oneness we all share with
this common homeland explains the depth of the pain
we all carried in our hearts as we saw our country
tear itself apart in a terrible conflict, and as we
saw it spurned, outlawed and isolated by the peoples
of the world, precisely because it has become the
universal base of the pernicious ideology and
practice of racism and racial oppression.
We, the people of
South Africa, feel fulfilled that humanity has taken
us back into its bosom, that we, who were outlaws
not so long ago, have today been given the rare
privilege to be host to the nations of the world on
our own soil. We
thank all our distinguished international guests for
having come to take possession with the people of
our country of what is, after all, a common victory
for justice, for peace, for human dignity. We trust
that you will continue to stand by us as we tackle
the challenges of building peace, prosperity,
non-sexism, non-racialism and democracy.
We deeply appreciate
the role that the masses of our people and their
political mass democratic, religious, women, youth,
business, traditional and other leaders have played
to bring about this conclusion. Not least among them
is my Second Deputy President, the Honourable F.W.
de Klerk.
We would also like to
pay tribute to our security forces, in all their
ranks, for the distinguished role they have played
in securing our first democratic elections and the
transition to democracy, from blood-thirsty forces
which still refuse to see the light.
The time for the
healing of the wounds has come. The
moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come.
The time to build is
upon us.
We have, at last,
achieved our political emancipation. We pledge
ourselves to liberate all our people from the
continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation,
suffering, gender and other discrimination.
We succeeded to take
our last steps to freedom in conditions of relative
peace. We commit ourselves to the construction of a
complete, just and lasting peace.
We have triumphed in
the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the
millions of our people. We enter into a covenant
that we shall build the society in which all South
Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk
tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of
their inalienable right to human dignity - a rainbow
nation at peace with itself and the world.
As a token of its
commitment to the renewal of our country, the new
Interim Government of National Unity will, as a
matter of urgency, address the issue of amnesty for
various categories of our people who are currently
serving terms of imprisonment.
We dedicate this day
to all the heroes and heroines in this country and
the rest of the world who sacrificed in many ways
and surrendered their lives so that we could be
free.
Their dreams have
become reality. Freedom is their reward.
We are both humbled
and elevated by the honour and privilege that you,
the people of South Africa, have bestowed on us, as
the first President of a united, democratic,
non-racial and non-sexist government.
We understand it
still that there is no easy road to freedom
We know it well that
none of us acting alone can achieve success.
We must therefore act
together as a united people, for national
reconciliation, for nation building, for the birth
of a new world.
Let there be justice
for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be
work, bread, water and salt for all.
Let each know that
for each the body, the mind and the soul have been
freed to fulfill themselves.
Never, never and
never again shall it be that this beautiful land
will again experience the oppression of one by
another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk
of the world.
Let freedom reign.
The sun shall never set on so glorious a human
achievement!
God bless Africa!
Thank you.
Looking for the quote
that starts "Our deepest fear is not that we
are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are
powerful beyond measure...."? This is commonly
attributed to Nelson Mandela. See
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