Friday, 22 September 2017 – September is the month all South Africans celebrate their rich cultural heritage in all its diversity. The common thread of diversity in a constitutional democracy that binds us all, makes us a unique nation.
This year, as Parliament commemorates Heritage Day, we do so in the context of celebrating 20 Years of the Constitution and the Establishment of the National Council of Provinces which makes it befitting to take a moment to look back and reflect on where we come from.
In 1994, the people of South Africa took a decisive break from the past that was characterised by racial segregation and declared our shared allegiance to justice, non-racialism and democracy. This was also characterised by our understanding that harmonising our diversity and tapping into the strengths therein, would enable us to create a new more cohesive society that we can ‘hand,’ to future generations that will continue to build and strengthen the country and the nation we all belong to.
“We did so knowing that the struggles against the injustice and inequities of the past are part of our national identity; they are part of our culture. We knew that, if indeed our nation has to rise like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes of division and conflict, we had to acknowledge those whose selfless efforts and talents were dedicated to this goal of non-racial democracy,” said former President Nelson Mandela he addressed an event marking Heritage Day in 1996.
Heritage Month highlights opportunities to foster cultural pride and share our diverse identities through events undertaken throughout the month, with the aim of creating greater awareness and acceptance of each other’s heritage. However, addressing an inaugural gathering of the Constitutional Court in 1995 Tata Madiba also reminded us that “People come and go. Customs, fashions and preferences change. Yet the web of fundamental rights and justice which a nation proclaims must not be broken.”
These fundamental rights are enshrined in our Constitution which remains the supreme law of our country. As we celebrate the 20th year of its existence we need guard it jealously. We must use the variety of our languages and cultures, once used to divide us, as our source of strength and richness, guided by the Constitution.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
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