PREMIER'S SPEECH
Mec Siphosezwe Masango
Your worship the mayor of Volksrust
Distinguished guests and participants
Ladies and gentleman:
Een hondred jaar gelede is die eerste skoot afgevuur in n oorlog wat onmenslike vernietiging sou bring in hierdie pragtige land. n oorlog wat ons gemeenskappe uitmekaar geskei het en diep wonde meegebring het vir individu, families en die gemenebes van nasies gemaak.
A hundred years ago the first shot was fired in a war that resulted in untold human misery in our country. It was a war that tore apart the fabric of our communities inflicting wounds in individuals, families and the national body politic.
At the end of it all, the face of our land was marked by the graves of the tens of thousands who had perished in combat, in concentration camps and through hunger.
'n Onmenslike vernietigingsveldtog het meegebring dat tienduisende Boer vroue en -kinders gesterf het in konsentrasiekampe en dat wonings tot die op grond afgebrand is. Die pyn, lyding, haat en bitterheid wat hierdeur veroorsaak is, was so diep dat dit vir die volgende honderd jaar sou voortduur.
A cruel scorched earth campaign, as a result of which tens of thousands of Boer women and children died in concentration camps and homesteads were put to the torch, evoked pain, anger and bitterness so deep that they have lingered on for a century.
Many among my people are genuinely asking: Why do we celebrate a white manís war?
Only now is the story beginning to be told of the enormous suffering which also befell the Black people of our country, who had to bear the death of thousands of their own kith and kin.
Ons is vandag hier byeen as die nageslag van die Swartmense, Boere, Britte en ander wat in daardie Suid Afrikaanse Oorlog geveg het en om hulde te bring aan die dapperheid en die lyding van di% wat gesterf het gedurende daardie onstuimige tydperk.
We meet here today as descendants of the Black, Boer, Briton and others who fought in this South African War, together to commemorate the courage and suffering of those who died in the turbulence of those times.
We have come here to honour the tens of thousands of men, women and children who, in their various ways, fought for what all of us hold dear - freedom and independence.
We pay homage to their black allies as well, who stood side by side with the Boers. Many among these bore arms and contributed to the war effort in other ways, themselves ready to lay down their lives for their own freedom and their land.
Let all of us mark the Centenary of the Anglo-Boer War - the South African War - with all the honour and dignity due to those whose lives it consumed.
We are not ìcelebratingî, as we would celebrate at a wedding, we are paying homage to all those millions who perished in that calamity.
We gather here to lay to rest a myth that this was indeed a white manís war. Many women, children and adult South Africans of all races perished in this war. Many young British men fell in this war.
Britain pitted the might of her great empire including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, Ireland and even the then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and two parts of our own dear country ñ the old Cape and the old Natal in a titanic struggle against two small Boer-ruled African republics: the old Orange Free State and the old Transvaal. It was truly a David versus Goliath struggle.
Other nations supported the Boer cause. Americans, Austrians, Dutch, French, German and even Russian volunteers fighting alongside the Boers and their governments.
One of the leaders of the Irish volunteers fighting with the Boers, who was in this very town of Volksrust in October 1899, was a Major John McBride, who was, so I hear, an ancestor of our well known freedom fighter, Robert McBride - Some activities obviously run in families.
We cannot ignore the centenary of this event, we must acknowledge it and we must do this in a positive manner.
I am therefore delighted to be in Volksrust today where the Mpumalanga launch of the centennial commemorations marks all three of these themes.
I will be unveiling a plaque in your memorial garden that commemorates a significant incident of black involvement in the war as well as the fact that Volksrust, and the railway siding of Sandspruit, was where the Boer army of the old Transvaal gathered before crossing the mountains into Natal to strike at the British assembling there.
This plaque, I believe, really focuses our attention on our joint history and promotes the ideal of reconciliation.
And I have also been requested to open these trading kiosks for informal traders. These facilities are the result of a process of negotiation between the TLC and the community and the TLC made R30 000 available for the erection of the structure.
This really promotes empowerment and economic development of our people and we are hoping that tourism, prompted by the centenary will provide further economic opportunities to those formal and informal traders of Volksrust.
In supporting the involvement of all in planning for this Anglo-Boer War Centenary, I must mention the role of the Amajuba Publicity Association and I am happy that their efforts have been acknowledged by the bringing of our provincial event to Volksrust.
As the Transvaal began preparing for war with Great Britain, most of the gold mines began closing down and paying off their staff. Wealthy white uitlanders could afford to travel to Durban or Cape Town by train, but the black migrant workers were left roaming Johannesburg vulnerable to robbery and destitution.
An official of the colonial government of Natal, Mr James Marwick, organised these workers, numbering some 7 to 8 000, and marched with them all the way across what is now the southern Highveld of Mpumalanga to the Natal border, here at Volksrust.
One of the best known British historians of the Anglo-Boer War, Thomas Pakenham, describes the scene as follows:
ìThere had been strange scenes in the great exodus from the Rand, but none stranger, perhaps, than the scene that followed. At the head of the Marwickís procession of Africans were a couple of Ö Boer policemen.
ìBehind them, marching thirty abreast, were a group of musicians, playing concertinas. They played popular African tunes. Behind the musicians marched an immense body of men, Zulus in African or European dress, all the tribes of Natalî
Mr Marwick walked with his column, assisting the sick (even giving his own pony to one of the sick workers) and the elderly and encouraging them to keep together.
I am delighted that Mr Marwickís granddaughter, Mrs Holleman, could be here today to begin the relay race to Dundee that commemorates the march that her illustrious ancestor led.
Thank you.