Address by His Excellency, President Jacob Zuma, on the occasion of

celebrating the National Day of Reconciliation, Gopane, Zeerust, North West

Province
16 December 2016

Programme Director, Minister Nathi Mthethwa,

Premier of the North West

Province, Mr Supra Mahumapelo

Ministers and Deputy Ministers,

MECs,

Members of the National and Provincial Legislatures,

Mayors and Councilors,

Motlotlegi Kgosi Gopane

Magosi a a tlotlegang,

Honoured guests,

Fellow South Africans,

Dumelang!

We are honoured to be here in Gopane today to commemorate a very important day

in our history, the National Day of Reconciliation.

The 16th of December represented a painful division between black and white
people in this beloved country for more than a century until 1995. The Afrikaner
people celebrated this day as a day of victory against the Zulu army under
King Dingane in 1838, at the battle of the Ncome River in Natal.

In 1910 the Union government declared the 16 th December a national holiday.

In 1952 the apartheid government renamed this day as the Day of the Covenant,
where they claimed to have made a covenant with God in 1838 that they will observe
and celebrate 16th December if they win against the Zulu people.

The 16th of December is also the day on which the ANCs military
wing, uMkhonto Wesizwe, was established to take up arms against an
intransigent and cruel apartheid state.

President Mandela declared 16 December as the National Day of Reconciliation in

1995.

This was significant to have Madiba, who was the first commander
of Umkhonto Wesizwe and led the ANC in taking up arms against the apartheid
state, declaring that we should reconcile and rebuild our country. He and the
democratic government turned a day that was a source of division, into a day
that brings South Africans together.

As we celebrate this achievement of our nation, we should also remember that

reconciliation is a two way process. While black people are implored to come to bury
the pain of the past and move on, white compatriots should also be ready to
accept and support the imperative of transformation and redress.

The implementation of measures to deracialise the economy, such as black

economic empowerment, affirmative action and land reform remain critical for us to
achieve true and meaningful reconciliation.

All these are provided for in the Constitution of the Republic, which is 20 years old
this month. We should drive these programmes together, as we rebuild our country.

We should thus not regard reconciliation as an easy matter.

It is profound and requires a lot of work by all of us. Today we must all recommit
ourselves to walking this important journey together.

Fellow South Africans,

Commemorating the Day of Reconciliation

immense historical significance.

here

in Gopane todayalso carries

Gopane is one of the villages which experienced bloody confrontations between the
people on the one hand and the apartheid government and its collaborators on the
other, where people were brutally killed over the issue of passes, between 1957 and
1958.

The conflict, as most might be aware, started

the women, mounted resistance against carrying passes.

in Dinokana,

where

They were inspired by Kgosi Abraham Moiloas resistance to the Bantu Authorities
laws, the black spots removals and the pass laws on the one hand. They were also
inspired by labour migrant formations such as the Bahurutshe Association on the
other.

A spiral of anti-pass conflicts spread to other villages in the Lehurutshe area, which
included Gopane, Mosweu, Witkleigatand Motswedi.

Many people fled to exile in Botswana. Some succumbed to harsh conditions or

starvation and died, while some were brutally assaulted by the apartheid authorities
and their collaborators.

As we conclude the year in which we marked the 60th anniversary of the womens
march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria against passes, we salute the women and
all people of Gopane and surrounding villages of Zeerust, for their contribution to the
fight for freedom of movement, the fight against pass laws.

We also salute traditional leaders in this area, who resisted apartheid policies, often
at great cost.

Some were banished, while their people were exiled to Botswana, constituting the
first batch of exiles and refugees to that country, at the time when it was still called
Bechuanaland.

It is these committed men and women who made Lehurutshe an important rural
hotbed of anti-apartheid activism over many years since the late 1950s, which made
it a safer terrain for later anti-apartheid political activities.

This area is therefore also significant as it served as a very critical passage route for
anti-apartheid activists as they left the country for exile.

Many
activists,
including
former
President
Mandela, President
Thabo Mbeki, President Oliver Tambo and many others used the Zeerust route to
Botswana to exile in various countries, such as Tanzania, Zambia, England and
many others.

Last
Sunday,
we
laid
to
rest
a
veteran
of
the
struggle, Mr Riot Makhomanisi Mkhwanazi, with whom I was arrested near this area
here in Zeerust in 1963, leading to us serving 10 years on Robben Island.

We once again thank the people of neighbouring Botswana profoundly, for

their solidarity and selfless contribution to our struggle for liberation.

We come from a painful past as South Africans. We have been able to come this far
in 22 years because we took that conscious decision to move on, and build a new
nation.

That was the best decision any nation coming from conflict could ever take. It was
also in the best interest of the country and generations to come.

Indeed the journey towards reconciliation continues, and there are various aspects to
it. I mentioned the need for redress.

There is also the need to assist families that were directly affected by apartheid
atrocities, who lost their loved ones in painful circumstances, to find closure and
healing.

Government is currently engaged in a programme of finding missing persons and

also handing over of the remains of former political prisoners who were executed by
the apartheid government to their families.

At least 130 political prisoners were hanged for politically-related offences in the
period between 1960 and 1990. The state retained custody of the remains of the
deceased, thereby denying their families the opportunity to receive or bury them.
The apartheid state buried the deceased political prisoners as paupers in cemeteries
in and around Tshwane, despite the fact that their families were willing to receive the
bodies for burial.

Of the 130 hanged political prisoners, 47 have already beenexhumed by other

parties, groups or individuals.

Eighty three remain to be recovered, and these are the remains of former members
of the Pan-Africanist Congress who were executed in the 1960s as well as United
Democratic Front activists who were hanged in the 1980s.

The democratic Government launched the Gallows Exhumation Project on 23 March

2016 at Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Centre in Pretoria to begin the exhumation of
the mortal remains of the 83 political prisoners.

This week, on 14 December 2016, the remains of twelve Eastern Cape PAC
members who were executed in 1964, for the Mbasheriver construction site incident
were exhumed at Rebecca Street Cemetery in Tshwane. The remains of other
two activists who were also executed for their part in the Mbashe incident, shall be
exhumed in January 2017.

This leaves government with 71 remains to be exhumed.

We acknowledge the work of the Missing Persons Task Team and the Truth and
Reconciliation Unit in the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development who
undertake this difficult task.

It is a taxing and painful period for the families. We trust that this process will assist
them to find closure.

Compatriots,

Reconciliation is also about providing support to those who sacrificed lifes comforts
to free this country and people, the former combatants who served in the liberation
armies, Umkhonto Wesizwe and the Azanian People's Liberation Army or APLA.
Government is working hard to ensure that the socio-economic needs of former
combatants are met. Many are unable to look after themselves and cannot provide
for their children.

Government established the Department of Military Veterans in 2014 so that it can

take care of the reintegration of former combatants into civilian life and to provide the
necessary socio-economic and psycho-social support.

The full establishment of the department has also taken longer than planned which
has affected some of our veterans.

It has come to our attention that some of our former combatants are not on the
database of the department and have not been receiving benefits that they are
entitled to. It becomes a sore point that the former members of apartheid
forces against whom they fought, receive these benefits.

I went to visit one of the members of the Ashley Kriel MK unit in Cape Town on the
7th of December, Mr Patrick Presence in hospital in Cape Town. His circumstances
are a stark reminder of the presence of many others whose families suffer in
silence. We wish him and many other veterans in ill health a speedy recovery.

While there are difficulties, the delivery on some of the benefits to military veterans
as stipulated in the Military Veterans Act of 2011 increased this year.

The Department of Military veterans is currently providing more than five thousand
bursaries to military veterans and their dependents for basic and higher education.

To date, almost fifteen thousand military veterans are being provided with free
healthcare support.

Government is also on course to provide one thousand houses to military

veterans. Currently, close to two thousand destitute military veterans are provided
with support through the Social Relief of Distress programme run by the Department
of Social Development.

Government will not rest until the services reach all our veterans who served in the
liberation movement, as we continue the journey towards reconciliation.

Compatriots,

The National Day of Reconciliation is also about coming to terms with the painful
tragedy that occurred in August 2012 in Marikana in this province, where about 44
people were killed, the majority of them by police, during a strike at Lonmin Mine in
Rustenburg.

The incident was painful and traumatic, not only for the families, but all South
Africans.

We appointed a commission led by retired Judge Ian Farlam who made findings and
several recommendations. We issued a detailed statement on the 11th of December
outlining what various government departments are doing to implement the
recommendations.

Among the actions being taken is the provision of housing in order to improve living
conditions by government and also the mining company.

Importantly, the issue of compensation, particularly for loss of support for the
deceased families, for unlawful arrest and detentions, is being attended to.
The South African Police Service is ready to pay.

Government lawyers are working with the legal teams of the affected persons or
families of the deceased to finalise the claims.

We cannot bring those who died back. However, we can and must do our best to
ensure that the lives of their children improve.

Other remedies include taking steps against all those, particularly within the police
service, who were found to have committed criminality in the way they handled the
situation at Marikana.

The prosecution authorities are working on the matter and some senior police
officers have been charged.
Yesterday, I received a report from the Claasen Board of Inquiry, which I appointed to
look into the fitness of the National Police Commissioner to hold office. I will study
the report and make an announcement in due course.

The Marikana tragedy contradicted everything we stand for as a nation and country
whose Constitution is founded on the belief in fundamental human rights including
the right to life and security. The Constitution also includes labour rights and our
country has mechanisms in place to resolve shop floor disputes. A labour
dispute must not cause loss of life.

We dont want to see such an incident happening in our country again. Not in our
lifetime, and not in the lifetime of any South African.

Premier Mahumapelo established the Marikana Reconciliation, Healing and Renewal

Committee to promote healing, cohesion and lasting peace among the communities
in Marikana.

It must be an ongoing process that will enable all to find healing.

Compatriots

In this 20th anniversary of our constitution, I urge all of us to work hard to make our
constitutional provisions a reality that is felt by everyone.

Let us bury racism, tribalism, xenophobia and all other intolerances. These
tendencies rear their ugly heads from time to time.

Let us support one another and build a South Africa that is united, non-racial, nonsexist and prosperous.

Let us work hard for national unity, nation building and reconciliation.

I wish all South Africans a meaningful and happy National Day of Reconciliation.

I thank you.