South African History Online

Johannesburg, 29 September, 1992

Mr. Joseph,
Distinguished Visitors,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a singular honour to be with you this evening, and a unique privilege
to receive the Miami Beach Medallion of Honour. The fact that people,
communities and their elected representatives from such far-off places have
taken South Africa, with all our triumphs and our tears, into their hearts is a
source of great encouragement. We know we do not stand alone in our endeavours
to achieve peace, freedom and basic human rights.

I am deeply moved that you, Or Joseph, have had the commitment to travel to
South Africa, despite the recent grievous loss of your wife, to make this
presentation. This makes the award all the precious to me: know that you have
our heartfelt sympathy. We wish you strength and courage in the days ahead.

This function coincides with a visit of a technical exchange mission, and we
warmly welcome you to South Africa.

We are sure that during your seven-day stay you will have the opportunity to
visit many parts of our country. This will bring home to you the enormity of the
problems decades of apartheid race rule has bequeathed any future government. To
address the backlog in housing, the impoverishment of millions of squatters,
lack of education or primary health care requires a sustained effort to
implement clear policies, combined with stable government.

We have millions of people who were forcibly relocated into rural
impoverishment; millions who continue to flock to urban destitution; children
who grow up knowing only violence and hunger; generations of youth deprived of
education, family life and any hope for the future.

Our people have resisted oppression with every fibre in their being. They
have witnessed enforcement of policies that have systematically shattered the
very fabric of society. The resistance of the South African people has been
accompanied by an equal determination to reconstruct a fairer, more equitable
and just society, a society in which all can live in peace and prosperity.

As we move forward into a new era of hope, we need to pay careful attention
to what our people say, listen to how they want to reconstruct their dismembered
lives. Development cannot be imposed from above: to be sustainable, it must
emerge from engagement with people and grow from the realities of the prevailing
socio-economic conditions.

And this is why your visit is of such importance. We want to learn from your
experience in other parts of the world. We want you to be familiar with our
needs, our goals, our problems. We want to benefit from international
developmental experience.

The resources, both human and material, that are required are enormous. The
foundations for the future must be laid now. Freedom must not become a slogan
without meaning because stomachs remain empty.

It should be recognised that we are beginning to emerge from what was
tantamount to 45 years of war against the people. And the damage continues to be
inflicted, particularly through the ongoing violence.

South Africa cries out for peace. Sustained development requires stability.
We are sure your stay with us will be mutually beneficial. Just as
anti-apartheid organisations worked to isolate the regime, we are confident that
all that creative energy and concern for our lives and our future will be
harnessed to consolidate support for medium and long-term development, so that
all South Africans can benefit from the fruits of freedom.

Allow me to again extend our sincere appreciation of the honour you have
bestowed upon me, and through me on all those throughout the world who stand in
defence of the liberty of the human spirit.

We hope that this award, just as it extends a Eland of friendship across the
miles that separate us, will also help heal the divisions that erupted in the
Miami community during my visit there in 1990, my first visit to the United
States.

As South Africa begins the painful process of establishing a democratic
society in which all shall live with dignity, we need your friendship and
support. We dare not fail.

Thank you.