The Democratic Alliance today celebrates with all South Africans, the 25th anniversary of the unbanning of civil and political parties and the announcement of the release of the late former President Nelson Mandela.
One of the most extraordinary, improbable and courageous acts in our history was the unbanning of the African National Congress, the Pan African Congress, the South African Communist Party and other such organisations by former State President and Nobel Laureate F.W de Klerk.
It was a counter intuitive act in the light of the logic of apartheid’s history. White minority rule depended on the oppression of the black majority.
It was a courageous act in charting a course in opposition to those who sought the further balkanization of South Africa.
It was a political act to unban the liberation movements at the very time that the Berlin Wall fell.
It was a visionary act in that de Klerk understood that no one group white or black could make South Africa succeed and that we were blessed in our co-dependence, in this together for better or for worse, united in our diversity.
It was the right thing to do. Morality is rarely a force in politics but most South Africans across the racial divide felt in their hearts that this was the right to do and that we were finally moving in the right direction. Human decency had triumphed.
Modern democratic South Africa was forged by citizens of all races, young and old, rural and urban who were enabled by many leaders to channel history in the right direction.
Today, 25 years on, we celebrate our great diversity of nation-builders, whom enabled us to enjoy our freedom and to access boundless opportunities. We do so in a time that South Africa is once more yearning to move in the right direction away from the corruption and moral decay resulting from preservation of power.
DA Federal Chairperson
Source : Democratic Alliance