President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on South Africans to celebrate the country’s extraordinary diversity while strengthening the values of unity, ubuntu and human dignity that bind the nation together.
“Today, across our country, as South Africans, we are celebrating who we are. We are celebrating the languages we speak, the songs we sing, the food we prepare, the clothes we wear, the stories we tell and the customs we observe,” President Ramaphosa said.
The President delivered the keynote address during the National Heritage Day celebrations at Bongolethu Sports Stadium in Oudtshoorn, Western Cape, on Thursday, held under the theme: “Celebrating Our Living Heritage: Strengthening the Ties That Bind Us.”
The President said this year’s Heritage Day theme is important because heritage is not simply about the past but remains alive in people and communities.
“Our heritage is living because it resides in people.”
He noted that living heritage can be found in homes and communities, in the knowledge of traditional healers, the work of craftspeople, music and dance, ceremonies, faith, rituals, languages and the African understanding of ubuntu.
President Ramaphosa also paid tribute to the country’s Living Human Treasures, including traditional practitioners, storytellers, musicians, healers, craftspeople and knowledge holders who preserve South Africa’s collective memory.
He said the country has a responsibility to ensure that indigenous knowledge and traditions are passed from one generation to another.
“We must record it. We must teach it. We must practise it. And above all, we must pass it on,” President Ramaphosa said.
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The President further noted that Heritage Day is an opportunity to remember both the painful chapters of South Africa’s history and the courage and solidarity of those who resisted injustice.
He stressed the need for South Africans to remember dispossession, slavery, colonialism, apartheid and forced removals, as well as millions of people who resisted oppression and ultimately chose to build one country together.
“That too is our heritage.”
The Constitution and belonging
The President said the Constitution is part of the country’s heritage.
“It is the tie that binds us together,” he said, adding that the country’s diversity of cultures, languages, religions and histories does not make it less of a nation.
“Our diversity does not make us less of a nation; our diversity is what makes us the nation that we are,” the President said.
The President emphasised that South Africa’s challenge is to bring its different identities together and use diversity as an opportunity to learn from one another.
However, he warned that belonging cannot only be something written in the Constitution.
“It must be something people experience in their daily lives. And that is where the challenge of our generation lies.”
Equality and gender-based violence
The President said belonging should be reflected in access to education, healthcare, social protection, housing, basic services and economic opportunities.
“This freedom is not equally lived by someone who lives in a community where the streets are safe, and someone who lives every day with the fear of crime. It is unequally lived by a household that can provide its own electricity and water, and a household dependent on a municipality that is failing to provide basic services.
“It is unequally lived by a young person with access to education, technology and opportunity, and another young person whose circumstances deny them those opportunities. And it is profoundly unequally lived by a man who can walk the streets without fear, and a woman who must constantly consider whether she will be safe,” the President said.
President Ramaphosa added that under the umbrella of the National Dialogue process, government wants to write the next chapter of the South African story and craft a new vision for the country.
“We have attained our freedom; the next step in our collective journey is giving meaning to that freedom,” the President said.
In addition, he said violence against women “will not be part of the inheritance we leave to the next generation.”
READ | President Ramaphosa to address the nation on GBV measures
“In a few days, I will address the nation on the steps government is taking to confront gender-based violence, and to update South Africans on the investigation into the killings of women in and around Ekurhuleni,” he said. -SAnews.gov.za
