South African History Online

Speech by President Nelson Mandela on receiving the Pretoria Press Club's 1994 Newsmaker of the Year Award

Pretoria, 20 July 1995

Chairperson of the Pretoria Press Club;
Members of the
Press;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen.

The Pretoria Press Club does me a great honour in singling me out with its
1994 Newsmaker of the Year Award. In accepting the Award with heartfelt
gratitude, I do so in all humility on behalf of our South African nation.
Indeed, the truth that it is not kings, generals and other leaders who make
history, has never been more forcefully illustrated than it was in 1994.

The news events of 1994 were milestones in South Africa's history.

In particular, the April elections as well as the inauguration of the
country's first democratically elected government were giant steps in the
twentieth century history of Africa and the world. Seasoned observers were taken
by surprise. Knowledgeable sceptics and prophets of doom were confounded.

Our people proved to be in advance of even the most optimistic analysts.
Their yearning for freedom, and their understanding that the time had come to be
done with apartheid, were too powerful to be deflected.

They wanted, quite simply, to work together for a better life for all South
Africans. And nothing could stop them.

And now, more than a year later, the people of South Africa continue to
surpass expectations.

The events around the Rugby World Cup revealed how firmly the desire for
unity and reconciliation has found root in the hearts of all South Africans. And
this was not a one-off event. It was rather a high watermark in a swelling tide
towards a shared genuine patriotism.

If these events tend to surprise some of us, is it because we have not fully
appreciated the real dynamic beneath the mood-swings of day-to-day news
headlines? Indeed, when expectations of failure and diagnoses of crisis are so
repeatedly and so emphatically proved wrong, should we not pause for thought!

A more balanced perspective, based on a better understanding of what is
happening in our country, would equip us well for the challenges that lie ahead.
It would allow each of us, politicians and the media, to fulfil our tasks all
the better.

In the first place, it should be recognised that the drive for national unity
and reconciliation is not imposed by leaders or political parties. It comes
rather from a persistent and determined people.

In countless organised and unorganised ways, they are busy shaping a new
society based on respect for one another and on a partnership among various
social structures. The are seeking ways to engage in formulating the polices and
managing the institutions which govern their lives. This is the basis of the
stability which our new democracy has so quickly found; a sure guarantee that
South Africa's new civilisation will flourish.

Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen;

The successful outcome of negotiations over the Labour Relations Act showed
just how durable is the national compact in pursuit of the country's interest. A
forum like the National Economic, Development and Labour Council brings together
what are arguably the most powerful organised forces in our society.

In this forum, it should be expected, the most fundamental differences within
our society will play themselves out. To manage such differences is precisely
one of the functions of Nedlac. What matters is the overriding commitment of all
the parties ultimately to seek sustainable consensus.

If that is understood, then there will be no sense of each dispute signalling
a national crisis. And government will play its part in resolving difficulties.
This the Minister of Labour did in an exemplary way in the case of the Labour
Relations Bill.

An understanding of the processes at work in our society will help us, too,
to see the immense importance of the local government elections. Any
administrative and political delay in the holding of the elections puts off the
day when communities will take into their hands the instruments of changing
their own lives and healing the divisions imposed on our localities.

We are, so to speak, not abstract people with abstract national feelings and
needs. Rather, we experience the divisions of the past and the efforts at
national reconstruction and reconciliation in our day-to-day life where we live
and work. The sooner the structures to manage this day-to-day interaction are
put in place, the better for our nation-building.

Honourable Chairperson;

Yesterday we signed the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act;
and we shall soon put in place the procedures for the appointment of the
Commissioners. The challenge of achieving a shared understanding of our past is
a complex proctime.

It will need historians, artists and writers, amongst others, to forge a
common knowledge of our history, to give each South African an insight into the
life-experience of others.

Revelations in the press and electronic media over recent weeks make clear
that the truth will not wait to be known. There is no choice as to whether or
not the secrets of the past are to be unravelled.

The methods which were used to try to delay freedom and democracy are
becoming known because the vast apparatus of censorship and control of
information has fallen away. More importantly they are becoming known because
those who were required to act upon them are measuring their deeds against the
new values of a humane and equal society in the making.

The choice we do have is how to manage this process. This, precisely, is the
task of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Expediting its establishment,
we believe, is in the interest of victim and perpetrator alike; it is in the
interest of the nation as a whole.

This Commission will provide a means to make known the fearful aspects of the
darkest time in our history. It will bring a light which will ensure that our
security forces free themselves, once and for all, of the legacy of a past on
which our society has turned its back.

However, the commission will, objectively, not be the only vehicle for this
process. Various institutions have a role to play, including the media. And,
political and other leaders ignore this reality at their own peril.

Whatever creates in the public mind a suspicion that there are important
matters known to leaders still to be revealed, can undermine national
confidence. Those in public office therefore have a responsibility as leaders to
declare their own knowledge of the past. To wait for others to reveal such
information or to sit tight in the hope that some human rights violations will
not come out, certainly is not in anyone's interest.

The people of South Africa have demonstrated unmistakably their desire for
reconciliation and to build a nation at ease with itself. The success of our
Parliament in achieving consensus on this deeply sensitive matter is an
important triumph for our democracy. Political leaders, of whatever party,
should act so as to build on this giant first step.

In that way we can help ensure that the search for the truth becomes a
corporate national effort; not an exercise in mutual recrimination.

It is my fervent wish, that our success in managing this process, as well as
the efforts of communities to change their lives for the better, will be the
newsmaker of 1995.

For that will be a milestone towards realising the vision which inspired the
historic events of 1994.

Thank you

Issued by: Office of the President