Speaker, hon Deputy President, Deputy Speaker, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, and hon members, thank you for your contributions to the debate of the Budget Vote of the Presidency. We are grateful to hon members who engaged us on the issues, giving feedback and comments that will enable us to improve our work. The expectation of such a debate is that hon members would engage on the content. Unfortunately, some members on the opposition benches reminded me of my favourite passage in Shakespeare's Macbeth. [Interjections.] Their inputs were simply "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". [Laughter.] It is from Macbeth, after Macbeth received the message about his wife and he engaged in a soliloquy. [Laughter.]
On 18 July the world will join us in celebrating Nelson Mandela's birthday, the birthday of the consummate freedom fighter and former uMkhonto weSizwe commander-in-chief, former President Nelson Mandela. [Applause.] He is honoured in recognition of his selfless contribution to the struggle against racial oppression. Madiba and his comrades were declared terrorists and were incarcerated for almost 30 years because they had dared to say that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and called for a nonracial, united, democratic and prosperous South Africa. The mere mention of Mandela's name in this country was an act of treason. He was supposed to be forgotten for life. His organisation and millions around the world who shared his ideals kept the memory of Madiba and his comrades inside and outside the country alive until the dawn of freedom. Tata Madiba, as president of the ANC, became the first President of the democratic South Africa after the 1994 elections. He led the nation through a difficult period of reconciliation and nation-building, implementing his organisation's policies and encouraging South Africans to accept one another and bury the past, without forgetting it.
We welcome the fact that former President Mandela, as leader of the ANC, is now embraced even by those who disagreed with him and his organisation in the not too distant past. [Applause.] The embracing of Madiba by all demonstrates the success of the reconciliation policy of the ANC-led government, implemented since 1994. It should be counted as amongst the key victories of the postapartheid state and its policies. However, it should be stated for the record that the Madiba of 1994 is the same Madiba who was a freedom fighter and commander-in-chief of uMkhonto weSizwe, the Madiba of the defiance campaign, of the Rivonia Trial and other critical milestones in the country's liberation struggle. He cannot be separated from his history, his comrades and his organisation. He cannot be separated from the struggle for liberation.
Meaningful reconciliation must come from accepting people for who they truly are and not what we want them to be. Let us love the real Madiba and not our own creations designed to suit certain ends. Parties cannot claim to have embraced Madiba and still, as hon Peters pointed out in her call for consistency in political convictions and actions by opposition parties, "continue to perpetuate the policies of our painful apartheid past" as is happening in some parts of the country. We must join hands to celebrate Madiba's birthday on 18 July, fully understanding and accepting what he stands for. Each one of us is called upon to contribute community service for at least 67 minutes on "Mandela Day", emulating this great man who inspires billions around the world.
As government we remain steadfast in following our leader, Madiba, in doing what the Freedom Charter and Constitution calls on us to do - to build a South Africa that belongs to all, black and white. We assure hon Pieter Mulder that we remain committed to these ideals in words and in deeds. This is, however, a two-way process. We trust that hon Mulder's party will also support government in its efforts of building a nonracial society, by aligning its own programmes and policies with this nonracial ethos - so should all other parties that now claim to follow Madiba and the ANC policies that he espouses. [Applause.]