Hon Deputy Speaker, I believe that if you had given the hon Lekota a further fifteen minutes, he would probably have also lectured us on the founding of another congress. [Laughter.] But he couldn't get to that point. Thank you, therefore. [Laughter.]
On behalf of the FF Plus, I would also like to extend a word of congratulations and thanks to our compatriots of Indian origin and descent who are South African citizens for the role that they have played over many years.
I think it is also correct that we look at history from a different angle. Even though it is true that a large majority, or the bulk, of Indians came in 1860, it is also true that it is said that the first person of Indian descent arrived in 1657. This was a lady known as Mooi Ansiela. She was born in north-west India, and arrived with Pieter Kemp on board one of the ships called the Amersfoort. She was an employee or a slave of Jan van Riebeeck. In 1668 she was made a free burgher and she was then allowed to do whatever she wanted in regard to her slavery.
It is also interesting to note that slavery and the whole thing that happened here was in 1860. In the two Boer Republics slavery was abolished in 1854 in terms of their constitutions.
Now, the Chief Whip referred to the whole issue of unity and diversity, and I have also listened to what our colleagues have said today. I remember something from when I was a child. I was brought up on the West Rand in Gauteng, and I remember many Sunday afternoons in the early 1960s when there was not much to do. We would get into our cars and drive to have a look at the beautiful double-storey houses in Azaadville where our Indian compatriots were living.
Today things are different. Today Indians are in terms of the Employment Equity Act and affirmative action considered as black. Things have changed, but the important point I would like to make is this: No minority in a plural society will ever in the long-term survive by claiming credentials through supporting the majority in that sense. What we need in South Africa in terms of the constitutional dispensation is the recognition of the rights of different communities in terms of their cultural and linguistic heritage, and to make provision for that in our constitutional dispensation. That is where your future will lie, not in trying to suck up to any majority, regardless of who that majority may be. Thank you.