Mr Mulder, leader of the FF+ party, had previously complained the President Zuma had said theat South Africa's troubles began when Jan van Riebeeck landed. _____
Parliament.jpg Parliament, 19 February 2015 Reply by President Jacob Zuma to the Debate on the State of the Nation Address: Unscripted Response to Pieter Mulder Hon Mulder, nobody is chasing Afrikaner compatriots away from this country ... [Applause.] ... not a single one. I began the address last week with an affirmation of the Freedom Charter's pronouncement that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, and we believe in it. The preamble of the Constitution makes a similar profound affirmation. Let us work together to build our country, and leave finger pointing aside. [Applause.] I know that this point was taken when we were celebrating the birthday of the ANC - when the ANC celebrated 103 years since its inception. I had to give the history of this country, and history is history. History has chapters ... painful chapters and wonderful chapters, but it is history. When I said that when Jan van Riebeeck landed in the Western Cape our problems began, it is a historic fact. [Applause.] I always avoid giving the details of history, because it's not necessary. When he landed here there were residents in this very city who were established here - the Khoi and San. They were living here and they welcomed him warmly. He established himself and they were together. But, somewhere and somehow, tension began and there were wars that were fought. They were forcibly removed from their areas here. They were removed and some of them went deep into the country - north, south and east. The wars began because after the population arriving in South Africa grew. It is written down; it's not me concocting it. [Applause.] There were eight major wars fought in the Eastern Cape. I didn't write that. We are not counting other smaller wars, but there were eight major wars. There was the Great Trek from here when there was a quarrel between the Afrikaners and the British. That is the history of this country. There was an establishment of four republics - two belonging to the British and two belonging to the Afrikaners. When all of this was done, the blacks were not consulted, not even with regard to the establishment of the republics. [Applause.] The clashes between the Afrikaners and the British continued. There is no part of the country where there were not any clashes with the British and the Afrikaners. Some are big and known while others are not known. The Zulus fought the British, with the major one being at Isandlwana. The Afrikaners fought the Zulus at Blood River ... and the Afrikaners discovered ... as they say ... they discovered ... they actually came across ... [Laughter.] ... mineral resources. The British heard about this and vowed to defeat the Afrikaners, and there was the Anglo Boer War. That is the history of this country. It was a very bitter war. We all participated on either side. Only now when we are correcting history are we calling it a South African war because people from all sides died in that war. At the end of that war the English-speaking people and the Afrikaners met to negotiate and agreed that the four republics should be combined. They took very important decisions, of where Parliament would be, as part of the compromises reached. Parliament would be in Cape Town. Where would the administrative city be? It would be Pretoria. Where would the judiciary be? It would be in the Orange Free State city of Bloemfontein. One of the decisions taken when these two met was that there would have a Union of South Africa. The government would be elected at all times; however, the black people would not participate in that process. [Applause.] It was that decision which led to black people meeting in Mangaung in Bloemfontein to discuss what we called the national calamity - that indigenous people were not part of governing this country. It was a very bad decision with regard to an important decision of uniting the four republics. It was at that time that we said we are going to fight to liberate ourselves in order to be part of government and to participate. You must know because this country was still fully under British colonial rule. There were delegations that went to England to raise these matters. We did not want to fight but we wanted to be part of the process of governing this country. [Applause.] These were the activities many years after the landing of Jan van Riebeeck, who opened the way for them to be here. They started fighting here, in the Eastern Cape, Free State and everywhere else. There were wars. Again, after many years we said, what type of country do we want? We had to be clear that if we wanted a nonracial South Africa, what were we talking about? That's why the meeting in 1955 happened, wherein everyone in South Africa, including the government, was invited to say what type of country we wanted. That is why the Freedom Charter is important because that is when we moulded this country that we have today - a democratic and prosperous country. [Applause.] Important in that gathering was the preamble of the Freedom Charter, which is the basic policy of the ruling party, where we said: We, the people of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. [Applause.] It's a fundamental statement. We also said that: "no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people." [Applause.] This is what we have achieved now. How can you say that we say to the Afrikaners that they must go? No! I just said that the problem began when Jan van Riebeeck came here. [Applause.] That is not saying we don't want Afrikaners. We have long recognised the fact that all of us live in this country. It is in the Freedom Charter. No ANC person can say which people should go. There was a political organisation that at some point said that the white man must go into the sea, but we never bought that. We know that people move in this world. You moved away from certain problems and landed here, and we accepted you with both hands. [Applause.] We are all South African citizens; we are a rainbow nation. Nobody will chase you away. We will fight against those who say so, because you belong here. So there must be no fear at all. I just wanted to make this point clear. However, we will never stop talking about our history ... [Applause.] ... because our children must know where we come from so that future generations do not repeat the mistakes of the past. [Applause.] I thought it was important to make this point more clear because, perhaps when I make it in passing, people think this man is racist. I will never be a racist ... never! I fight against those who suppress minorities. I believe in what was said many times by our leader Mandela. When he was arrested by the white oppressors, he told them in court that: I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony with equal opportunities. [Applause.] That's what we believe in ... that's what we believe in. what we do today as government is informed by those principles and policies. You can say many things ... many people can say things about us, but we do not worry at times when you call us names. We don't worry because we know what we are doing. [Applause.] During the struggle we were referred to as terrorists - really making into less than human beings. This man whom everybody praises today was called terrorist number one. He was sent to Robben Island, where he served 27 years. Perhaps some of us just served 10 or a few years, but he spent 27 of the best and prime years of his life on Robben Island, and came out not angry or bitter, but he said let us build our country. You know, we always keep quiet when those who imprisoned him praise him today ... [Applause.] ... and not only praise him but claim him as their own. [Applause.] The insults that are being thrown at us today were thrown all the time, but I will deal more strongly with this matter when I answer questions next week. [Applause.] In going forward with the national reconciliation project, allow me to remind government departments and national entities that the implementation of the Use of Official Languages Act must be rolled out by 2 May 2015. Government departments must communicate with the people in languages they understand. Schools should also prepare to teach African languages in order to build a new citizenry of youth that will be able to understand and respect one another. [Applause.] From: http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71656?oid=1 011298 <http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71656?oid= 1011298&sn=Detail&pid=71616> &sn=Detail&pid=71616 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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