PREMIER'S ADDRESS
Master of Ceremonies
Comrade Madiba
MEC Craig Padayachee
Dr Mathunyane
Mayor Tsheke
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen:
My task is an easy one: To introduce and welcome people here, today.
Let me right from the outset welcome all of you here.
Some people need no introduction
I know some of you may argue that Comrade Madiba needs all the introduction he can get now that he is no longer President of the country.
We all have our fond memories of Comrade Mandela.
Some of us remember him for the Madiba jive;
Some for his colourful shirts;
Some for his infectious laughter;
Some for his incisive and almost elephant-like memory.
But we all remember him as the man who took us out of the abyss from which we, as a nation, had retreated. Comrade Mandela, with the help of other patriots, pulled us back from from the brink of total catastrophe. Siyabonga Madiba!
Ladies and gentlemen, today is not a day to sing praises. It is a day to witness practical ways in which government and big business can forge a partnership of a nation at work for a better life.
It is through such partnership that we can really push back the frontiers of apartheid and building a truly united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society.
Comrade Madiba, when you retired you were going to have a board similar to those we see being held by beggars in the street.
Unemployed!
No money!
No food!
New wife!
Please help!.
I am glad to see that indeed you did live up to your promise. You turned into a beggar, a professional beggar at that.
But instead of standing at street corners you went into the boardrooms of this country to beg not for yourself but for those who are less privileged, less fortunate. Those with limited resources to bring change in their lives.
We are glad that you care for us and in so doing teaches us to be a nation of citizens who care for one another; citizens who build one another; citizens driven by a new morality.
Today we witness the fruition of one of your actions.
Ladies and gentlemen, let us put our hands together for Comrade Madiba.
I Thank You.