South African History Online

Address by President Nelson Mandela at the inauguration of the National Council of Traditional Leaders

Cape Town, 18 April 1997

Honourable Chairperson;
Your Majesties, the Kings of our people and guests
from abroad;
Amakhosi, Magoshi, Mahosi;
Honourable
Ministers;
Honourable Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Many years ago, a British army commander reported to his superior: 'The camp
is in the hands of the enemy, sir!'. The Battle of Isandlwana had just been
fought and the amabutho had defeated columns of an army feared and revered
throughout the world.

Almost one-hundred-and-twenty years later, we gather in Cape Town to set up
the National Council of Traditional Leaders, in the precincts of an institution
that was used to perpetuate what that commander and his superior were delegated
to do: to defeat, to subjugate and to dispossess the African people; to plunder
their land and usurp its wealth.

We meet in the full and fulfilling knowledge that we can now declare: `The
country is in the hands of the people, dear friends!'

Isandlwana was one battle among many - Rhini in the east, Thaba Bosigo in
Lesotho, Ga-Sekhukhuni and Tshitandani in the north, Vegkop; and here, too, in
the Cape Peninsula where we gather today - some won and some lost, as our
forebears took up the cudgels despite being out-gunned, to defend their land,
their dignity and their freedom.

And so we meet, as descendants of these valiant fighters, in a different
setting, in a different era, to plan for peace and not war; to promote unity and
not division; to forge a common nationhood and not exclusive privilege.

That we gather at the dawn of the new millennium, is a reminder of the fact
that, valiant though their resistance was, the African people were conquered; a
dark interregnum of defeat and humiliation set in; and yet the resistance
continued, taking many forms under many different conditions. In the end, right
triumphed over might.

We meet not as victors to dance to the cries of war; we meet not to celebrate
over any vanquished people. Our trophies are neither skulls nor precious
booty.

We meet to assert the humanity of persons one to the other; to seek unity and
reconciliation; to set shoulders to the wheel in building a better life for
all.

I feel truly humbled to officially open the National Council of Traditional
Leaders; to stand before my leaders, at last to acknowledge their status and
role as full participants in national affairs; as part of the corps of leaders
in the reconstruction and development of our country.

The presence among us of Kings and other dignitaries from neighbouring
countries once again attests to the oneness of our sub-continent. As in the
past, and as it will always be in the future, we are one people with one
destiny.

Chairperson;

We are mindful that the journey to where we are today has not been easy. But
all of us persevered because we knew that what we had set out on was the right
road.

In the Northern Province, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu/Natal, Free State, Northwest,
Northern Cape, Northwest and Mpumalanga, without exception, there were problems
along the way. But through hard work; by putting the interests of the country
first, we were able to find common ground.

Out of these efforts, the provincial councils have already set pointers to
the kind of national council we all want. They have started to address unity
across ethnic lines; they have started to examine many vexed questions about
representation; they have started to work out programmes to bring traditional
leaders fully into the socio-political life of the nation, and to ensure
complementarity rather than competition between elected and traditional
authorities.

Today we are taking the giant step of setting up the Council of Traditional
Leaders. And the consensus that is emerging in the course of work in the
provinces gives us the strong confidence that this Council will succeed both to
define its role and to assert the Africanness of our new democracy.

Your Majesties;

When the new constitution was drafted, there concerns were that it did not
define in sufficient detail the status and role of traditional leaders; that it
did not, unlike the interim constitution, oblige government to set up this
council.

Some saw this as backtracking on the part of political parties; others
interpreted it as a refusal on the part of these parties to acknowledge the
unique African setting within which the universal ideals of democracy and
justice should find expression.

But we argued as the majority party and the government that we would be true
to our word, true to our South Africanness, true to the traditions that form
part of our rainbow nation.

The respect and recognition of the institution of traditional leaders require
more than fine-sounding declarations in a constitution. They should reside in
our hearts. and the launch of this Council today is one vivid expression of
that.

We believe that, in many ways, the fact that both the constitution and the
law establishing the council, do not set out rules and regulations in detail is
an opportunity to be exploited rather than a disadvantage to decry.

In the first instance, working out all the details would have taken an
inordinate time, with complex negotiations to try to balance among many
conflicting interests.

Secondly, the new institutions would have been presented with a fait accompli
regarding a system that is, to all intents and purposes, a novel undertaking
which should evolve creatively in the blast furnace of concrete experience.

And we should not fear the fact that, pleasant as some of these experiences
will be, others will test our patience and forbearance. This is as it should be,
in a moment of building anew.

Among the questions that constitutional experts, politicians and traditional
leaders themselves are debating is whether thorough- going democracy is
inherently inimical to traditional institutions. This is not the forum to debate
these issues in detail.

But we dare say that consultation, transparency and equity were the
corner-stones of the early societies from which we come. We dare issue the
challenge that on matters such as gender equality, tradition - good and bad,
then and now - cannot be seen as static.

Our views on all these and other issues is that old and new mores were
accepted by communities as such, because they regulated relations of their
times. And so it should be now; so that tradition is seen not as a sentimental
attachment to the past, but as a dynamic force relevant to present-day
realities.

What then, dear leaders, are the concrete challenges we face?

Indeed, because we are meant to be leaders of the people, our challenges
cannot be different from those that the people face.

Foremost amongst our tasks as a nation is to mobilise the people for
reconstruction and development. As the people were their own liberators, so
should they become active agents in changing their lives for the better. For
this, our communities need information about what resources and funds are
available to them; skills to turn their needs into plans and project proposals;
and an effective partnership with government. Traditional leaders can promote
these requirements.

Oppression was overcome in South Africa, and democracy is being built, by an
ever widening unity across the lines of race and ethnicity. But it would be a
mistake to regard that unity as something that will preserve itself. We need
constantly to encourage and promote it. As leaders, we need to be vigilant in
ensuring that the diversity which is our strength is never again used to divide
us.

Fundamental to our unity is the mutual respect for the rich variety of our
languages and cultures. While the constitution recognises rights in this regard
and proposes institutions to promote them, this will have little effect without
the involvement of traditional leaders.

Our freedom is also giving impetus to the recovery of our history. Recent
excavations, together with earlier work, are freeing our understanding of the
past from the colonial account of our country and region. They point with
increasing detail to our country's place in Africa's civilisation. Traditional
leaders can promote and assist continuing research so that we know who we truly
are.

the nation, with your help, also needs to come to a proper understanding of
those whose history has been most grievously affected by the ravages and
distortions of apartheid and colonialism: the Khoi and the San.

Bound up with the knowledge of our history is the resolution of the disputes
on lineage bequeathed to us by apartheid's ruthless attempts to bend the
institutions of traditional authority to its own end. Again, we have a central
role to play in helpijng to resolve these problems.

Perhaps more difficult than most, is to find the best ways in which our
elected structures of local government and traditional leaders can work together
for the good of their communities. This is a crucial area for reconstruction and
development, and a resolution of outstanding differences and conflictual matters
is of the greatest importance. Our experience has shown that with goodwill and a
commitment to the interests of the community as a whole, even the most difficult
problems can be overcome and mutually beneficial solutions found.

There are many such challenges that this Council will have to address.

And one of the more urgent ones is to finalise the issue of who should be a
full part of this institution which we are today bringing to life. We are
encouraged at the progress that is being made towards finding a solution to this
question in

relation to the Griquas, whose long resistance to dispossession forged
leaders of the stature of Waterboer, Le Fleur and Adam Kok.

All these tasks will demand infrastructure and resources, and Government
commits itself to providing these, within available resources.

In any case, we do not view the Council as an appendage or unwelcome addition
to the plethora of institutions we already have. Quite the opposite. It is in
fact part of the pool of organisers and leaders of nation-building and
reconciliation, reconstruction and development.

Because it is new, the Council will be seized with the urgent question of
defining its rules and how it will relate to the structures of parliament and
other national institutions. I am certain that these matters will be resolved
without difficulty, within the context of concrete experience.

The Ministry of Provincial Affairs and Constitutional Development is also
seized with all these matters. And we are proud that, for the first time in our
history we have a special section in government which is a servant of
traditional leaders, rather than one that treats them as an anthropological
curiosity.

Your Majesties;

The victory that we have scored against apartheid has laid the firm basis for
all the people of South Africa to unite across colour, language, ethnic and
religious barriers. It has launched us on the course of realising our true
potential.

Before the darkness of the interregnum of defeat and humiliation, great
visionaries such as Gonnema, Moshweshwe, Cetshwayo, Nghunghunyane, Hintsa,
Montsiwa, Sekhukhuni, Ramabulana, Mzilikazi, Kok and Mswati had come to the
realisation that the disunity of the African people was at the centre of their
woes.

Having together resolved that South Africa belong to all who live in it, we
know that the unity of our nation is our strength as we strive to build a
prosperous nation.

Our tryst with these forbears is to build South Africa into a united,
non-racial, no-sexist and democratic country; a nation of Africans across colour
lines; an African democracy in the modern world.

The country is in the hands of the people. Let us roll up our sleeves and get
down to work.

It is now my pleasure and privilege to announce the inauguration of the
Council of Traditional Leaders.

Issued by: Office of the President