South African History Online

Speech by President Mandela to the Joint Sitting of the Canadian
Parliament

Ottawa, 24 September 1998

Mr Speaker
Honourable Prime Minister
Your Excellencies
Ladies and
Gentlemen

I know that it is a rare privilege for anyone from another country to be
invited to address this hallowed institution of Canadian democracy which
includes in its roll of honour leaders of world renown.

That I should be granted that distinction twice in eight years is something
that can only be understood as a tribute to the people of South Africa by the
Canadian people, to whom we owe so much, and an expression of the partnership
between us.

When I stood before you in 1990, it was as a freedom fighter still denied
citizenship in my own country, seeking your support to ensure an irreversible
transition to democracy.

Today, I stand before you as the elected representative of the South African
people, to thank you once again, for helping us end our oppression; for
assisting us through our transition; and now for your partnership in the
building of a better life for all South Africans. We will forever be indebted to
you.

Although we still have a long way to go before we have realised our vision of
a better life for all, there has been a great transformation in South Africa
since 1990, and solid foundations have been laid.

The experience of all peoples has taught that our democracy would remain
secure and stable only if we could unite those who were once locked in conflict,
and if our new freedoms brought material improvement in the lives of our people.

On this day, 24 September, South Africa marks one of our most important
national days. Heritage Day is dedicated to the celebration of the rich
diversity of our people. As I speak, representatives of all the language ,
cultural and linguistic communities are gathered at a conference discussing how
to give institutional form to the commitment in our constitution to the
promotion and respect of the rights of communities.

In order that the memory of historical injustice and violations of human
rights should not remain as continuing obstacles to national unity, our Truth
and Reconciliation Commission has helped us confront our terrible past. Painful
and imperfect as the process has been, it has taken us further than anyone
expected towards a common understanding of our history.

If we lay stress on uniting the different sections of our society, it is
because unity and the partnership of all the structures of our society are
critical to the reconstruction and development of our society in order to
eradicate apartheid's legacy of poverty and inequality

Though there are differences amongst us, as is natural in any democratic
society, in particular one in transition from a past such us ours, they play
themselves out within an allegiance to our new democracy and within a broad
support for the government's policies.

We have therefore been able to make a good start in bringing basic amenities
to millions of people for the first time in their lives: electricity, clean
water; health care facilities; housing and schooling.

Our economic policies have turned years of stagnation into sustained growth
since 1994, along with improved productivity and exports as we gear our economy
for success in a competitive global environment.

We do face major challenges and problems. What is important is that we are
confronting them and we are confident that we will overcome them.

For example, though our policies are creating new jobs, the number falls
short of what we need. In response government, labour and business are joining
forces in preparation for a Presidential Jobs Summit next month, in order to
work out together a strategy for sustained job certain.

The institutions of the new democratic order are dealing with corruption in
our society. We have also appointed a powerful commission headed by a judge to
expose and root out corruption in the public service and recover the proceeds.

Crime is still at an unacceptably high level, but we have turned the tide
through the adoption of a comprehensive national strategy that includes the
reshaping of a police force whose former function was merely the protection of
minority interests and the suppression of resistance.

And though we have made mistakes in government due to lack of experience, it
is also true that we have achieved much more for our people than was ever done
under the previous government.

We are all too aware of the great deal that remains to be done. What is
important is that we are united as a nation as never before and determined to
succeed, and that we have friends like Canada who are working with us as
partners.

Canada is an important presence in much of what we have achieved, and in what
we are building.

Since our democratic elections, our relationship with Canada has entered a
new and vibrant phase, one that is growing from strength to strength.

In drawing up our new democratic constitution we drew deeply on Canadian
experience

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Government of Canada for
the technical assistance provided through the Canadian International Development
Agency and the International Development Research Centre. Critical areas
affecting transformation have benefited, including science and technology;
places of learning; our labour laws and our courts. We look forward to the
continuation of this assistance.

One of the critical measures of the growing relationship between our
countries is the threefold increase since 1994 in trade to a level close to one
billion Canadian dollars per year. We expect this expansion to continue. We have
brought on this trip people from private sector and government concurred with
the economy, we look forward to a reciprocal Canadian team in South Africa soon.

Also with me are government representatives and officials concerned with
Safety and Security, come to seek support for the implementation of our crime
prevention strategy, as well as others concerned with health care.

In all these ways we are benefiting both from financial assistance and from
your expertise and experience, as well as the affinities and shared aspirations
which join us.

Mr Speaker,

On my way here today, I had the honour of unveiling, at your Human Rights
Monument, a plaque dedicated to John Humphrey, author of the first draft of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I would like, if I may, to pay tribute to his contribution to the central
philosophy of your country and his dedication to the cuse of human rights
worldwide.

This is an area in which, Mr. Speaker, your country and mine march hand in
hand in practical action to make a living reality of the rights to which we
subscribe.

In this regard we think of Canada's hard work together with other countries,
to bring to fruition the anti-landmine convention. We were very proud, in
December last year, to be the third country, after Canada and Norway, to sign
that Convention, here in Ottawa..

Canada and South Africa also together played a part in the recent
establishment of the International Criminal Court.

South Africa is increasingly being called upon to play a role in
peace-keeping, in Southern Africa and in Africa as a whole. Our approach is that
we will play whatever part we can within our limited means, and within a
multilateral framework, whether it be the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the
Non-Aligned Movement, the Organisation of African Unity, and the Southern
African Development Community

Essential to our vision of a new and more humane international order is the
belief that inevitable as differences may be, they need not and should not be,
resolved by the force of arms. We look to peaceful resolution of differences
because this is the only way in which humanity can prosper.

It is in this context that South Africa has in recent days found itself
called upon to contribute its forces to a joint regional security initiative
aimed at assisting, at its own request, the democratically elected government of
a neighbour, by securing a measure of peace and stability.

Here too, we look to Canada as a partner. We recognise Lester Pearson as the
founder of modern peace-keeping, because of his innovative intervention in the
Suez crisis.

By the same token, we salute Canada's distinguished service over many years
in Cyprus, Bosnia, and Somalia, and more recently in the disarmament process in
Northern Ireland.

Mr Speaker,

Canada's internationalist record gives us confidence know that you understand
and share our vision of an African Renaissance. If history has decreed that our
continent, at the end of the twentieth century, should be marginalised in world
affairs, we know that our destiny lies in our own hands.

Yet we also know that we cannot bring about our Renaissance solely by our own
efforts, since the problems we face are rooted in conditions beyond the power of
any one nation to determine.

Indeed, the turmoil in far off economies that we have had to weather has, we
know, affected Canada too. In the interdependent world in which we now live,
rich and poor, strong and weak are bound in a common destiny that decrees that
none shall enjoy lasting prosperity and stability unless others do too.

These harsh lessons of our global economy were the focus of attention at the
summit of the Non-Aligned Movement held in Durban earlier this month. They have
forced themselves upon the attention of the whole international community. A
debate about the global trade and financial system that has been too long in the
making has now been joined.

We urge you to join with us in seeking to redirect the system and its
institutions so as to cater for the needs of development and the interests of
the poor.

In so doing we would be affirming a fundamental principle of all human
society namely that the existence and the well-being of each us is dependent on
that of our fellows. In a globalised world, that is as true of nations as it is
of individual men and women.

Mr Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen,

This occasion marks something of a farewell. I am deeply grateful that it has
been possible, before my retirement from public life, to make this second visit
to a people that has made our aspirations there own, who have insisted that the
rights which the world declares to be universal should also be the rights of all
South Africans.

But though it is a personal farewell and in some sense an ending, I do know
that it is also the beginning of a new and more profound relationship between
our peoples.

I thank you