SPEECH BY MEC NORMAN SHUSHU, MPL ON THE OCCASSION OF THE DEBATE OF HERITAGE MONTH 6TH SEPTEMBER 2011, NORTHERN CAPE PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE, KIMBERLEY

HONOURABLE SPEAKER AND MADAME DEPUTY SPEAKER
MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
HONOURABLE MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATURE
COMRADES AND FRIENDS

Honourable Speaker, our theme for this year’s Heritage Month is “Celebrating the Heroes and Heroines of the Liberation Struggle in South Africa”. This theme is intended to reconnect the entire nation, our country and province with the rich history of the liberation heritage of our country. It seeks to remind us of the selfless contributions made by South Africans across the racial divide for a South Africa which belongs to all who live in it, Black and White. The theme for this year requires of us to reflect on the role played by those who came before us in order to build a truly non-racial, non-sexist, prosperous and united South Africa. We engage in this debate cognisant of the current conjunctural challenges which have been brought about by centuries of colonial dispossession and oppression by the colonisers of our country.  
Honourable Speaker, in his opening address to Parliament in February 1996, our Isithwalandwe, President Nelson Mandela said “We can neither heal nor build, if such healing and building are perceived as a one way process, with the victims of past injustices forgiving and the beneficiaries merely content in gratitude. Together we must set out to correct the defects of the past”. Indeed we have a collective responsibility of ensuring that in preserving and acknowledging our heritage, all South Africans have a critical role to play and must act in unison with what the democratically elected government has set out to do for true reconciliation to happen in our country. We are reminded of heroes of our struggle like Bram Fischer, Molly Blackburn, Raheema Moosa, Helen Joseph, Beyers Naude, Kgosi Galeshewe, Moses Kotane, Moses Mabhida, Chris Hani, Oliver Tambo, Adelaide Tambo, Walter and Mama Albertina Sisulu and many others who left the comfort of their homes and the privileges offered by the apartheid system to pursue justice for all and the liberation of all South Africans.
Honourable Speaker, Bram Fischer saw no contradiction between his strong Afrikaner Nationalist ideology and his communist ideology as the two ideologies are a complimentary to each other. Bram Fischer loved the South African landscape and held his Afrikaner heritage dearly. His family was heavily involved in the fight against the British Imperialists and as such as an activist, he understood his family to be rebellious and as such there was no contradiction when he became a communist against his families believes and saw it as his revolutionary duty to enlighten conservative Afrikaner nationalists. In his submission to the court during the Rivonia Trial as part of the defence for Nelson Mandela he said “What is needed is for white South Africans to shake themselves out of their complacency, a complacency intensified by the current economic boom built upon racial discrimination. Unless this whole intolerable system is changed radically and rapidly, disaster must follow. Appalling bloodshed and civil war will become inevitable because, as long as there is oppression of a majority, such oppression will be fought with increasing hatred”. This true son of the soil died after having been denied medical treatment whilst in prison because he was a communist fighting what the apartheid regime called a black man’s war. Fischer had fought side by side with the African masses and was disbarred from the roll of advocates and only reinstated in October 2003 by a full bench of the High Court as an advocate, 40 years after his death.
Honourable Speaker, we also remember people like Helen Joseph. A stalwart of our liberation struggle and a pioneer of the Freedom Charter. As a trade Unionist, she could understand the dialectical link between the struggle for political freedom and the improvement of the working conditions of the working class within society within the Garment Workers Union. Helen Joseph was a defendant of the famous 1956 Treason Trial, charged with treason but she stood with her conviction even though she was faced with the possibility of death from the apartheid courts.  Helen Joseph had dedicated her life to the struggle and acted in loco parentis for the children of struggle icons like Winnie Mandela and Bram Fischer’s children.
The theme for this year’s Heritage Month gives us an opportunity to celebrate the lasting legacy of those that made a selfless contribution to the liberation of our struggle that then faced the risk of imprisonment or death by the authorities. This theme should help us to better understand each other as South Africans in pursuit of our common vision of building a united, non racial and prosperous South Africa. We need to be able to connect with our past in order to better understand our future and plan better for in order not to commit the mistakes of the past.
Honourable Speaker, we remember those who filled up the ranks of Umkhonto we Sizwe as from 16 December 1961 in order to ensure that we enjoy the freedom that we do today. We need to remember the combatants of MK and other liberation movements’ military formations who died in pursuit of a free and prosperous South Africa. We remember those who gallant fighters who took part in the Wankie and Sipolilo operation in 1967 and the liberation fighters who took part in the battle of Cuito Cuanvale. These unsung heroes and heroines of our struggle did not only provide a window of opportunity for our liberation movement but also for the stability required for the people of Angola, the liberation of the people of Namibia led by Andimba Herman Toivo ja Toivo and Sam Nujoma. We also pay tribute for the role played by internationalists and selfless soldiers from Cuba and we will forever remain grateful for their contribution to our liberation and that of Namibia.  
Honourable Members, as we celebrate this Heritage Month, we are reminded of warriors and gallant fighters like Kgosi Galeshewe, a leader of the Batlhaping tribe and a fierce opponent of the colonial occupiers of our motherland. Kgosi Galeshewe is one of the heroic leaders of the struggle against colonial oppression. He did this with stealth and was always leading from the front in the interest of his people against British Colonial rule. Captured in 1878 following an attack on Conforth Hill in which his nephew was savagely murdered, he never sold the course of his people. He was a leader of the Langeberg Rebellion and played a significant role in the battles for the emancipation of his people. This was as a result of the attacks he co-mounted on isolated traders and farmers in retribution against laws that disadvantaged the economic activities of the Batswana peopled. Kgosi Galeshewe, a recipient of the Order of Mendi for Bravery in Gold, was a fierce opponent of the colonial powers against the laws which disadvantaged the economic activities of the Batswana people. He was imprisoned by the authorities for the Phokwane Rebellion which led to the killing of Luka Jantjies and his recapture which ultimately led to the Batlhaping losing their land to the colonisers and others executed for their participation in the rebellion. The colonial rulers rejoiced over his arrest whilst his own people saw him as their hero against colonial dispossession. Kgosi Galeshewe continues to stand out as a true example of commitment to his people and commitment to principle.
We remember the heroes and heroines of the 1952 Mayibuye Uprisings. We remember struggle icons like Dr. Arthur Letele who organised a group of volunteers to defy the segregation laws of apartheid and forcefully occupy the “Europeans Only” section of the Kimberley Station. On the 8th November 1952 a dozen people were buried after a massacre committed by the savage apartheid regime and these were buried in a mass funeral at the West End Cemetery, these were workers who were selling their labour for starvation wages in the country of their birth refused the right to express their disapproval of repressive treatment in their country. Leaders like Dr. Arthur Letele, Sam Phakedi, Pepsy Madibane, Olehile Sehume, Alexander Nkoane, Daniel Chabalala and David Mpiwa were all arrested for what the authorities believed was their involvement in the organising of the defiance campaign. It is through the leadership of these brave men and women within the broad liberation movement that our people could shed the fear of jail for the liberation of the African people in colonised South Africa. We remember those who together with Dr. Letele marshalled the African National Congress then being John Rholeng, Khabi Khabele, Mosata, Mpemba, Qwetha Hulana and several others who gave the people on the ground an opportunity to show open defiance to the apartheid regime. We also remember those who were brutally murdered by the apartheid security apparatus during the 1952 defiance campaign in Kimberley, we remember people such as G. R. Ramafoko, B. Makhale, A Sekunkwe, K. Gabatlhole, K. Thembu and J. Shangwiwa
Honourable Speaker, we remember patriots of this country like Dr. Beyers Naude, he organised the World Council of Churches and eighty South African Churches who rejected race as the basis for exclusion from the church and reaffirmed the right of every South African to own land and have a say in the manner in which they are governed. Dr. Naude was one among a few white Afrikaners who encouraged the World Council of Churches to provide financial support to the liberation movements with great risk to himself and the safety of his family. He had already conditioned his family to prepare for “ten years in the wilderness” as a result of his believes and the role he was playing within the church and his political views. In 1970 Dr. Beyers Naude said “if blood runs in the streets of South Africa it will not be because the World Council of Churches has done something but because the churches of South Africa have done nothing.” This he was saying in order to explain the decision of the WCC on their support for liberation movements in South Africa. Dr. Beyers Naude was among a few white South Africans who had signed the Declaration of Commitment by White South Africans which was a public document that acknowledged that apartheid had indeed damaged black South Africans. After his death Dr. Naude was eulogised by President Mandela as “a true humanitarian and a true South African son.
Honourable Speaker and Members, we remember people like Frances Baard who had dedicated their life to the emancipation of her people even at great risk to her own safety. She was a member of the African Nation Congress and the ANC Women’s League. She served as an organiser of the Women’s League during the time of the Defiance Campaign and also served in various posts in the ANC branch in Port Elizabeth including being the treasurer and secretary of that branch. Mama Baard also served as the National Treasurer of the Women’s League in the mid 1950’s and as a member of the Executive Committee and local branch President of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW). Francis Baard was one of the leaders of the famous women’s march of 9th August 1956 which included women like Helen Joseph, Raheema Moosa, Lillian Ngoyi and others. Francis Baard was arrested many times and was one of the Rivonia Trialists and in her life she had been arrested many times for her political activism. She was also an executive member of the South African Congress of Trade Unions, present day COSATU. She attended the launch of the United Democratic Front in Cape Town in 1983 and was elected a Patron and Executive Member of the UDF.
Honourable Speaker, in honouring the heroes and heroines of our struggle we are reminded of what was said then by the ANC Spokesperson in exile Cde. Tom Sebina when he said "there is an alternative inside history that comes not from historians but from men and women whose lives have been totally dedicated, at great personal risk to the total liberation of our people and their preparedness to pay the ultimate price". We remember people like Latlhi Mabilo, Khotso Flatella, Zola Shongwe, Conrad Motebe, Hutshe Segolodi, Nkosiayithete Mtabane, Papa Oliphant and Sakkie Makame from Warrenton, the Colesberg 4.These comrades, and many others,  associated with the broad liberation movement led by the African National Congress, at great risk of detention under severe conditions or death without expecting any material benefit.
Honourable Speaker, as we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe later this year, let us remember all those who paid the ultimate price in order for us to enjoy the freedoms that we do today. Let us remember people like Chief Galeshewe, Chief Albert Luthuli, Moses Kotane, Moses Mabhida, Albert Nzula, Alex la Guma, Joe Slovo, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Mittah Seperepere, Eullysis Modise, Albertina Sisulu, Adelaide Tambo and many others for their foresight and leadership.
Honourable Speaker, writing in his weekly column ANC Today the President of the ANC said “We will be celebrating our national heroes and heroines with good reason this month. We have come a long way as a country. We owe our achievements to the foresight, dedication and sound leadership of the ANC’s founding fathers and mothers. The ANC has over the decades produced leaders who had clarity of vision, who had unwavering commitment and dedication to the cause of freedom, and who understood very well, the political conflict in South Africa and how it could be resolved”. Let us celebrate Heritage Month and make a commitment to living the vision of making South Africa a place for all, a country that prides itself in true non-racialism, united and let us make our motherland prosperous for all South Africans. Let us make democracy work, in particular for the working class and poor of our society. In celebrating Heritage Month, let us be sure not to have blank pages in history.
KEA LEBOGA
I THANK YOU.
BAIE DANKIE