South African History Online

27 September 1992

Mr. Chairman, officials and members of the Transvaal Hindu Seva
Samaj,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Comrades and friends.

I regard it as a privilege and great honour to be present with you today on
this historic occasion, when we, once again pay a deserving tribute to the
memory of M. K. Gandhi. He served his apprenticeship in South Africa for twenty
one years and then as the Mahatma liberated through mass action, India from her
Imperialist bondage. Gandhiji was a South African and his memory deserves to be
cherished now and in the post apartheid era.

The Gandhian philosophy of peace, tolerance and non violence began in South
Africa as a powerful instrument of social change. In the twentieth century this
weapon was effectively used by India to liberate her people. Martin Luther King
used it to combat racism in the United States.

South Africa has a legacy of racism and violence perpetuated by decades of
apartheid rule. If the Mahatma was here today he would tell us that the root
cause of the violence in our country is apartheid. He would have warned us not
to allow the philosophy of divide and rule to sow seeds of division in or midst
but to unite and restore human freedom to all South Africans.

I think that it is absolutely necessary to spell out here today what the
Mahatma has meant to South Africa and to the rest of the world. And we must
never lose sight of the fact that the Gandhian philosophy may be a key to human
survival in the twenty first century.

The African National Congress has spearheaded the path to lasting peace in
this country. Our initiative to negotiate with the government and the suspension
of our armed struggle arose out of our desire to bring about and end to the
systemic violence that apartheid created. Indeed to bring an end to the racial
division apartheid implanted upon us.

We can say ladies and gentlemen that our decision to negotiate created new
avenues for unifying our people of every race, colour or creed. The formation of
the Patriotic Front is one case in point. Gandhiji would have acknowledge that
the time we are in is difficult and dangerous and he would have pressed us to
continue and to ensure that our liberation when it is finally achieved is not
tentative but a lasting legacy to peace, democracy and unity.

The Gandhi hall of the Seva Samaj must become a focal point for the
development of a non-racial, non-sexist South Africa. And if it does so then it
will be worthy of the name of Mahatma Gandhi. It will be worthy of the name of
those who followed in the footsteps of Gandhi in the 1946 passive resistance, in
the 1952 Defiance campaign, the Congress of the people's rally and the birth of
the Freedom Charter in 1955. It will uprising, the united Democratic Front and
the Mass Democratic Movement, steps in our history which resulted in the
unbanning of the liberation movements and the release of political prisoners.

To the officials of the Hindu Seva Samaj, I humbly say that you have a great
democratic heritage, which you must uphold with the rest of South Africa. You
must enter the new era of freedom not only proud of your past, but proud of the
present.

I remember the Gandhi Hall of so Fox Street. This was the venue where freedom
was taught. The teachers included Dr A.B. Xuma, Yusuf Dadoo and Monty Naicker,
who gave us the 1947 Freedom Pact.

After the historic Freedom Charter was drawn up in Kliptown it was read for
the first time in the Gandhi Hall. Apartheid took away the old Gandhi Hall, and
the people have given us this new symbol of Peace and with it the remembrance of
a man who changed the pattern of thinking in the twenty first century about race
and class.

Yesterday the ANC and the S.A. government agreed to renew negotiations. We
have established that we, the ANC, want to have freedom for all in this country
at all cost but I hasten to add not at any price. Political prisoners have been
used as hostages for too long, the question of weapons of death have been
addressed in part and the hostels which have been the centres of the low
intensity warfare waged against our communities are to be fenced off and phased
out.

We will continue to talk and press forward towards an interim government of
national unity and a constituent assembly which must be elected by all South
Africans. Gandhi pledged 21 years of his life to the development of
non-racialism and democracy in our country it is our duty to ensure that we not
only remember his deeds but that we emulate and uphold them.

A united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa will become the
jewel of this planet. We face a bright future not with standing the horrors of
apartheid and its violence. We are dedicated to a negotiated settlement and to
lasting peace. We call on all those present and those not present to reject
apartheid and its past and present supporters. Your place and mine is in the
democratic camp to which the Mahatma belonged.

Attaining our liberation cannot be an easy and smooth task. We shall obtain
it through our collective efforts. May the new Gandhi hall serve all the people
of South Africa and may it serve the cause of Peace, Justice an Reconciliation.

With these thoughts, I have the great pleasure in declaring this Hall named
after the Mahatma formally opened.