Hon Chairperson;
Ministers and Deputy Ministers; hon members; distinguished members of the judiciary; heads of professional law bodies; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen, hon members, allow me, as I open this important debate, to express my profound gratitude to our Chief Justice, Mogoeng Mogoeng, whom I had the opportunity to meet ahead of today's Budget Vote.
I look forward to his judicious guidance and wisdom and that of his leadership as we tackle the tasks ahead of us. I will therefore be engaging regularly with the Chief Justice and the judiciary on matters that are important to the Judiciary and the Courts in general. We have agreed to meet regularly to discuss matters of common interest.
In his state of the nation address, the hon President Ramaphosa emphasised the importance of our people's dreams of a South Africa that espouses our collective aspirations. In this, he sought to remind all of us, that the South Africa we have falls short of the ideals our people aspire for, and for which many paid the supreme price.
This year marks the 56th anniversary of the Rivonia trial when Nelson Mandela and his core accused persons, namely, Lionel Bernstein, Denis Goldberg, Arthur Goldreich, Bob Hepple, James Kantor, Ahmed Kathrada, Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Andrew Mlangeni, Elias Motsoaledi and Walter Sisulu stood trial in what had become known as the Rivonia trial, named after one of the suburbs of Johannesburg.
The case was heard before Judge President Quartus de Wet, the then Judge President of the Transvaal Provincial Division of the Supreme Court. Leading the prosecution was Dr Percy Yutar, then Deputy Attorney-General of the Transvaal. Mandela, Sisulu, Mbeki, Motsoaledi, Mlangeni, and Goldberg were found guilty on all four counts of High Treason.
Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment and served most of his 27 years and eight months in Robben Island. Amongst the defence team that represented the accused persons, was Arthur Chaskalson who went on to become the first President of the newly established Constitutional Court before it was merged with that of the Chief Justice of the Republic of South Africa.
The persecutors of Nelson Mandela never harboured even the remotest idea, that his long walk to freedom will, in fact, be a journey of a triangle, from Robben Island to the Union Buildings and to the global stage that the United Nation proffered. It was on 11 November 2009 when the United Nations adopted a resolution by consensus, that the date of birth of our first President of the democratic Republic of South Africa be recognised internationally for his remarkable contribution to promoting world peace, resolving conflicts and promoting race relations, human rights and reconciliation.
Since from the year 2010, the International Mandela Day has been celebrated worldwide as gesture of goodwill on which people of the world are encouraged to contribute 67 minutes towards humanity and making the world a better place. We, as a country, have come a long way. Today things have changed: South Africa is a constitutional democracy ... [Interjections.]