Mandela promises S.Africans way out of racism
CAPE TOWN (Reuter): Following is a text of South African President-elect Nelson Mandela's address to crowds in Cape Town on Monday after his election to the presidency by the new all- race National Assembly:
"My fellow South Africans, today we are entering a new era for our country and its people. Today we celebrate not the victory of a party, but a victory for all the people of South Africa.
Our country has arrived at a decision. Among all the parties that contested the elections, the overwhelming majority of South Africans have mandated the African National Congress to lead our country into the future. The South Africa we have struggled for, in which all our people, be they African, colored, Indian or white, regard themselves as citizens of one nation is at hand.
Perhaps it was history that ordained that it be here, at the Cape of Good Hope that we should lay the foundation stone of our new nation. For it was here at this cape, over three centuries ago, that there began the fateful convergence of the peoples of Africa, Europe and Asia on these shores.
It was to this peninsula that the patriots, among them many princes and scholars, of Indonesia were dragged in chains. It was on the sandy plains of this peninsula that first battles of the epic wars of resistance were fought.
When we look out across Table Bay, the horizon is dominated by Robben Island, whose infamy as a dungeon built to stifle the spirit of freedom is as old as colonialism in South Africa. For three centuries that island was seen as a place to which outcasts can be banished.
The names of those who were incarcerated on Robben Island is a roll call of resistance fighters and democrats spanning over three centuries. If indeed this is a Cape of Good Hope, that hope owes much to the spirit of that legion of fighters and others of their caliber.
Democracy
We have fought for a democratic constitution since the 1880s. Ours has been a quest for a constitution freely adopted by the people of South Africa, reflecting their wishes and their aspirations.
The struggle for democracy has never been a matter pursued by one race, class, religious community or gender among South Africans.
In honoring those who fought to see this day arrive, we honor the best sons and daughters of all our people. We can count amongst them Africans, coloreds, whites, Indians, Moslems, Christians, Hindus, Jews - all of them united by a common vision of a better life for the people of this country.
It was that vision that inspired us in 1923 when we adopted the first ever bill of rights in this country. That same vision spurred us to put forward the African Claims in 1946. It is also the founding principle of the Freedom Charter we adopted as policy in 1955, which in its very first lines, places before South Africa an inclusive basis for citizenship.