SPEECH BY PRESIDENT NELSON MANDELA AT THE SIGNING OF THE
CONSTITUTION

Sharpeville, 10 December 1996

Friends and compatriots;

By our presence here today, we solemnly honour the pledge we made to
ourselves and to the world, that South Africa shall redeem herself and thereby
widen the frontiers of human freedom.

As we close a chapter of exclusion and a chapter of heroic struggle, we
reaffirm our determination to build a society of which each of us can be proud,
as South Africans, as Africans, and as citizens of the world.

As your first democratically elected President I feel honoured and humbled by
the responsibility of signing into law a text that embodies our nation's highest
aspirations.

In writing the words which today become South Africa's fundamental law, our
elected representatives have faithfully heard the voice of the people. To the
Constitutional Assembly, and to its Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson who
guided it through a complex and arduous process, we owe thanks.

We owe thanks to the Constitutional Court which has proved a true and
fearless custodian of our constitutional agreements.

In centuries of struggle against racial domination, South Africans of all
colours and backgrounds proclaimed freedom and justice as their unquenchable
aspiration. They pledged loyalty to a country which belongs to all who live in
it.

Those who sought their own freedom in the domination of others were doomed in
time to ignominious failure.

Out of such experience was born the understanding that there could be no
lasting peace, no lasting security, no prosperity in this land unless all
enjoyed freedom and justice as equals.

Out of such experience was born the vision of a free South Africa, of a
nation united in diversity and working together to build a better life for
all.

Out of the many Sharpevilles which haunt our history was born the unshakeable
determination that respect for human life, liberty and well-being must be
enshrined as rights beyond the power of any force to diminish.

These principles were proclaimed wherever people resisted dispossession;
defied unjust laws or protested against inequality. They were shared by all who
hated oppression, from whomsoever it came and to whomsoever it was meted.

They guided the negotiations in which our nation turned its back on conflict
and division.

They were affirmed by our people in all their millions in our country's first
democratic elections.

Now, at last, they are embodied in the highest law of our rainbow nation.

This we owe to many who suffered and sacrificed for justice and freedom.

Today we cross a critical threshold.

Let us now, drawing strength from the unity which we have forged, together
grasp the opportunities and realise the vision enshrined in this
constitution.

Let us give practical recognition to the injustices of the past, by building
a future based on equality and social justice.

Let us nurture our national unity by recognising, with respect and joy, the
languages, cultures and religions of South Africa in all their diversity.

Let tolerance for one another's views create the peaceful conditions which
give space for the best in all of us to find expression and to flourish.

Above all, let us work together in striving to banish homeless- ness;
illiteracy; hunger and disease.

In all sectors of our society - workers and employers; government and civil
society;
People of all religions; teachers and students; in our cities, towns
and rural areas, from north to south and east to west - let us join hands for
peace and prosperity.

In so doing we will redeem the faith which fired those whose blood drenched
the soil of Sharpeville and elsewhere in our country and beyond.

Today we humbly pay tribute to them in a special way. This is a monument to
their heroism.

Today, together as South Africans from all walks of life and from virtually
every school of political thought, we reclaim the unity that the Vereeniging of
nine decades ago sought to deny.

We give life to our nation's prayer for freedom regained and continent
reborn;

God bless South Africa;
Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika;
Morena boloka sechaba
sa heso;
God s? Suid-Afrika,