Thank you, hon President, hon Deputy President, hon Speaker, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. The President's vision and comprehensive plan set out in this address and endorsement of Nepad has amplified Seme's idea of the regeneration of Africa.
Whilst addressing the Oratory Contest at the University of Columbia in 1905, Dr Pixley Isaka Ka Seme spoke on the regeneration of Africa. In this address, Seme called for a unique civilisation for Africa and Africans.
Like his contemporaries, such as W E Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, Seme was inspired by the glories of ancient Ethiopia and Egypt. In this regard, Seme exclaimed that -
All the glory of Egypt belongs to Africa and her people. These monuments are the indestructible memories of their great and original genius.
Marcus Garvey also made the regeneration of Africa a rallying point for Africa and her Diaspora. In 1914, Marcus Garvey established the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Harlem, New York, for the advancement of the regeneration of Africa. Seme and Garvey's ideas for the regeneration of Africa found practical expression in the Harlem Renaissance.
The literary and cultural awakening, called the Harlem Renaissance, brought more attention to the African Diaspora. In its own way, the Harlem Renaissance was an African consciousness movement, which started with the Prince Hall Masonic Movement and the Ethiopian Church Movement.
The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s witnessed a remarkable flowering of creative energies by African writers seeking inspiration from and celebrating their African heritage. Among black writers such as Du Bois, the period of the Harlem Renaissance was a time of African rediscovery.
Two founding fathers of African democracy, Kwame Nkrumah and Nnamdi Azikiwe, were profoundly influenced by the Harlem Renaissance. Nkrumah attended Universal Negro Improvement Association, Unia, meetings in Harlem during his student days in the US. In his autobiography, Azikiwe testifies to the influence that Garvey had on his political development. Azikiwe, like Seme, also validated Africa's regeneration, drawing attention to its remarkable past.
In 1937, Azikiwe published a book, entitled Renascent Africa, which was another important landmark in this gradual rediscovery of a history that had been forcibly denied, and therefore forgotten during the colonial period when massive exploitation of the country's human and natural resources went hand in hand with a refusal to honour and respect its cultural movements.
Azikiwe refused to accept that Africa's culture had been blighted forever by the impact of European imperialism and remained focused on achieving moral and social regeneration through the triumph of democracy, ensuring mental emancipation through a rejection of racism and striving for economic prosperity through self-determination.
During the 1940s and 1950s, many African leaders, including our leaders, Nelson Mandela, OR Tambo, John Nkadimeng and Walter Sisulu, also developed African regeneration ideas. The African Renaissance, just like the European Renaissance, was underpinned by humanist principles that the hon President called upon us to rediscover and make the cornerstone of our desired cohesive, caring and sustainable communities.
The ANC elevated humanist principles to its national vision by setting the strategic objective of creating a nonracial, nonsexist, united, democratic and prosperous South Africa in which the value of every citizen is measured by our shared humanity. In 1997, our icon, Nelson Mandela, observed that African religion has enriched humanity's spiritual heritage through the spirit of Ubuntu, that profound maxim "I am through others", or "I am because we are".
The principles of equality, freedom and justice for all that are enshrined in our Constitution are inherent in this spiritual philosophy of ubuntu. Thus, the human rights culture that the hon President referred to is not a foreign concept but an important part of our cultural heritage and tradition. The African regeneration of Seme is firmly rooted in his assertion "I am an African", which was later adopted by former President Thabo Mbeki.
Accordingly, African regeneration is founded on the idea of a cultural and economic rebirth and renewal, based on Africa's extraordinary history of past achievements, especially with reference to Africa's cultural heritage. The beginning of our rebirth and renewal as a country and as a continent must not only be centred on the rediscovery of our humanity, but also on our past glories.
In his speech in Tunisia in the early 1990s, our icon for liberation, Nelson Mandela, lamented the destruction of the African city of Carthage by the Romans and placed in the foreground other African achievements symbolised by the monuments, such as Axum in Ethiopia and Great Zimbabwe. Here at home, we have heritage sites such as Mapungubwe, Lwandali, also known as Tshiendeulu, Thulamela, Nahakwe, Ga-Kaditshwene, Ntsoanatsatsi, rock paintings of the San and others, which share the same cosmology, history and heritage with all indigenous cultures of Southern Africa and North East Africa.
We have diminished heritages and languages such as Isipondo, Khelobedu, Isintwana and Northern Ndebele, which could throw light on and deepen African cultural unity and diversity. Viewer support for cultural, religious and linguistic communities, in particular, will ensure that these traditional communities may become part of the mainstream and contribute to the development of a new African mission on the southern tip of this continent.
Historically, our human values have been derived from our national identity and heritage. Our quest for service delivery must be informed by our values for human development underpinned by an aspect of who we are as a people. This calls for the promotion of the use of indigenous knowledge systems and languages to achieve our rural development objectives.
For example, indigenous spiritual and agricultural calendars are very important, hon Nkwinti, because even if people have not been to school, they know that September is the time to prepare to go ...
... babuyele emasimini bayolima [back to the fields to plough]...
... so that they can have guaranteed food security. Instead of taking people to universities just to understand the calendar, I think from our indigenous cultures, we can educate the people without spending time at school. [Applause.]
In September last year, the hon President reminded us that we should go back to ploughing. The President also congratulated various religious bodies, like the Hindus, Muslims and practitioners of African religions who were celebrating their new year in September, which means that the overwhelming majority of the people in this country who are believers, believe that the new year is in September, and they celebrate it and it reminds them that it is the time to plough. So if we want to speed up rural development, hon Minister Nkwinti, I think using these traditional cultures can help us.
In April, many religious formations hold their spiritual celebrations and indigenous communities also celebrate their spiritual wellbeing during this time.
Initiation schools for indigenous communities usually begin in May, which is the same time as when most religious formations perform their spiritual practices.
We have sacred spaces such as Motoulong in the Free State, which are used by Sotho-, Zulu- and Xhosa-speaking people subscribing to Apostolic, Zionist and African religions for worship and initiation. This is a classic example of the convergence of different cultural and religious groups united in diversity.
South Africans and African people, in particular, have a common history and heritage, which provides us with the means to create an overarching South African national identity and cultural unity in diversity.
In our quest to build a nonracial, nonsexist, united and democratic South Africa, we should not forget that Africa is the cradle of all humanity that was fragmented and dispersed to different parts of the globe and later returned as Afrikaners, Indians, Africans and Khoisan, to mention but a few.
The Mapungubwe and Zimbabwe cosmology, history and heritage, which have been rediscovered, show substantive identity with their ancient Ethiopian, Egyptian and Roman counterparts from which Europe derived its civilisation. Working together, both black and white, we can rediscover our cultural unity in diversity and forge an overarching national identity and common vision.
We recently adopted the Unesco Convention on the Revitalization of Intangible Heritage, which provides a global platform for the regeneration of Africa as well as the rediscovery, preservation and development of diminished heritages and languages.
It is therefore the prerogative of the ANC government and all members of our society to harness commonalities between various cultures in order to build an overarching culture that unifies and gives us a common identity without compromising our diversity. This justifies the need for a Presidential programme on moral and social education, which could accelerate the infusion of progressive values in our children. On many occasions, the hon President has called for social education to deal with the deepening moral regeneration in our society. Now is the time for your administration to consider implementing this.
The implementation of our infrastructural development program me should also include the rehabilitation of facilities in rural areas, townships and missionary schools so that these could be used as centres for social education and moral regeneration.
The endorsement of the ANC Manifesto by a decisive majority of our people signifies confidence in the ANC's vision of promoting humanistic principles in its approach to meeting its key priorities on education, fighting crime, health, job creation and rural development. For instance, when we talk about crime, we must not focus solely on the police and courts, but we should also emphasise social education during childhood, which would assist young people to be responsible citizens of good moral standing.
It is in this context that Seme and Garvey's ideas on the regeneration of Africa and Africans remain relevant in guiding the partnership for reconstruction, development and progress that the hon President announced in his inauguration. The partnership provides all of us, both black and white, with an opportunity to work together, not only for the rediscovery of our humanity, but also for holistic development including spiritual and material human development.
The National Interfaith Leaders' Movement born out of the hon President's inclusive approach to social cohesion and nation building, has endorsed the idea of holistic human development and is ready to be part of this important partnership.
In this Budget Vote, the hon President very ably demonstrated that his quest and that of the ANC to create decent jobs, provide quality and affordable health and education, develop rural areas and create cohesive, caring and sustainable communities is part of an integrated and comprehensive plan to improve the quality of life of all South Africans, both black and white.
All of us in this House are acutely aware that the hon President criss- crossed the length and breadth of our country to seek a common mandate and invited all South Africans to participate in the development of the ANC manifesto. The President's plan is therefore a product of wide consultation and working together with people from different sectors of our society.
Last but not least: the decisive victory that the people of South Africa gave to the hon President and our glorious organisation, the ANC, to lead and build a government which is interactive and responsive and will promote the common good of the nation as a whole, is understandable; a nation rooted in the spiritual, moral and social values of the founders of our democracy.
It is for this reason that we remain forever indebted to the Congress of the People that met in Kliptown on 26 June 1955 to adopt the Freedom Charter - the cornerstone of our democratic culture and values. [Applause.]
We shall forever celebrate this day to deepen and entrench our democracy because the progressive values and principles embodied in the Freedom Charter became the building blocks of the 1996 Constitution, which is now hailed as one of the best constitutions in the world.
In conclusion, let me acknowledge that ANC MPs are reaping the benefits of the hon President's inclusive approach and co-operation with other political parties. We have cordial relations and have begun to work together for the common good of the nation, as the hon President urged us to do.
The ANC is fully supportive of the Budget Vote for the Presidency because it is crafted for a good national cause, which will serve the interest of all of us without discrimination. I thank you very much. [Applause.]