South Africa, 1994

It surely must be one of the

great ironies of our age that this Assembly is being

addressed, for the first time in its 49 years’ history, by a

South African Head of State drawn from among the

African majority of what is an African country.

Future generations will find it strange in the extreme

that it was only so late in the twentieth century that it was

possible for our delegation to take its seat in the

Assembly, recognized both by our people and by the

nations of the world as the legitimate representative of the

people of our country.

It is indeed most welcome that the Organization will

mark its fiftieth anniversary next year with the apartheid

system vanquished and consigned to the past. That

historic change has come about not least because of the

great efforts in which the United Nations engaged to

ensure the suppression of the apartheid crime against

humanity. Even as it was still in the process of

establishing its institutions, the United Nations was

confronted by the challenge of the accession to power of

the party of apartheid domination in our country.

Everything that that system stood for represented the very

opposite of all the noble purposes for which the

Organization was established. Because apartheid reduced

and undermined the credibility of the United Nations as

an effective international instrument to end racism and

secure the fundamental human rights of all peoples, the

establishment and consolidation of apartheid constituted

a brazen challenge to the very existence of the

Organization.

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Forty-ninth session 3 October 1994

The United Nations was born out of the titanic

struggle against nazism and fascism, with their pernicious

doctrines and practices of racial superiority and genocide.

It therefore could not stand by while, in South Africa, a

similar system was being established by a Government

which also had the temerity to claim representation within

the United Nations.

We believe that it was indeed of great importance to

the universal efficacy of, and respect for, the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations

Charter that the United Nations should have spurned the

pleas of the apartheid regime that the gross violation of

human rights in South Africa was a domestic matter of no

legal or legitimate concern to the world body.

We stand here today to salute the United Nations and

its Member States, both singly and collectively, for joining

forces with the masses of our people in a common struggle

that has brought about our emancipation and pushed back

the frontiers of racism.

The millions of our people say "Thank you" and

"Thank you again, because the respect for your own dignity

as human beings inspired you to act to ensure the

restoration of our dignity as well".

We have together traversed a course which we are

convinced has strengthened human solidarity in general and

reinforced the bonds of friendship between our peoples and

the nations of the world. This dates back to the early days

when India put the question of racism in South Africa on

the Assembly’s agenda, to the moment when the world

community, as represented here, could adopt consensus

resolutions against apartheid with none dissenting.

It was therefore with great joy that at our inauguration

as President of our Republic we received, among others,

such high and distinguished officials of the Organization as

the Secretary-General, the President of the General

Assembly and the Chairman of the Special Committee

against Apartheid. Their presence reaffirmed the

incontrovertible truth that the victory over apartheid, the

success of the cause of democracy, non-racialism and non-

sexism in our country belongs as much to our people as it

does the United Nations.

And so we have embarked on the road to the remaking

of our country, basing ourselves both on the democratic

Constitution, which came into force on 27 April this year,

and on the Reconstruction and Development Programme,

which has become the property of all our people.

Clearly, these documents would have no life unless

the people gave them life. The words printed in them

must inspire common ownership by all our people and

their common allegiance to the process and the results

which these documents intend. For this to happen, as we

propagate the vision these documents contain we must at

the same time engage in a historic effort of redefinition

of ourselves as a new nation.

Our watchwords must be justice, peace,

reconciliation and nation-building in the pursuit of a

democratic, non-racial and non-sexist country. In all that

we do we have to ensure the healing of the wounds

inflicted on all our people across the great dividing line

imposed on our society by centuries of colonialism and

apartheid.

We must ensure that colour, race and gender become

only a God-given gift to each one of us, and not an

indelible mark or attribute that accords a special status to

any.

We must work for the day when we as South

Africans see one another and interact with one another as

equal human beings and as part of one nation united,

rather than torn asunder, by its diversity.

The road we shall have to travel to reach this

destination will by no means be easy. All of us know

how stubbornly racism can cling to the mind and how

deeply it can infect the human soul. Where it is sustained

by the racial ordering of the material world, as is the case

in our country, that stubbornness can multiply a

hundredfold.

And yet, however hard this battle may be, we will

not surrender. Whatever the time it may take, we will not

tire. The very fact that racism degrades both the

perpetrator and the victim commands that, if we are true

to our commitment to protect human dignity, we fight on

until victory is achieved.

We firmly believe that we who have particular

experience of the destructive and anti-human force of

racism owe it to ourselves to centre our transformation on

the creation of a truly non-racial society. Because we

know racism so intimately, we must stand a good chance

of developing and nurturing its opposite.

It will perhaps come to be that we who have

harboured in our country the worst example of racism

since the defeat of nazism will make a contribution to

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Forty-ninth session 3 October 1994

human civilization by ordering our affairs in such a manner

that we strike an effective and lasting blow against racism

everywhere.

Some of the steps that we have already taken -

including the establishment of a Government of National

Unity, the orderly transformation of the institutions of State

and the cultivation of a national consensus on the major

issues of the day - have started us off on a correct footing

with regard to continuing the processes leading to the

creation of the just society we have been speaking of.

Our political emancipation has also brought into sharp

focus the urgent need to engage in the struggle to secure

our people’s freedom from want, from hunger and from

ignorance. We have written this on our banners: that the

society we seek to create must be a people-centred society;

all its institutions and its resources must be dedicated to the

pursuit of a better life for all our citizens. That better life

must mean an end to poverty, joblessness, homelessness

and the despair that comes of deprivation. This is an end

in itself because the happiness of the human being must, in

any society, be an end in itself.

At the same time, we are intensely conscious of the

fact that the stability of the democratic settlement itself and

the possibility actually to create a non-racial and non-sexist

society depend on our ability to change the material

conditions of life of our people so that they not only have

the vote but have bread and work as well.

We therefore return to the United Nations to make the

commitment that, as we undertook never to rest until the

system of apartheid was defeated, so do we now undertake

that we cannot rest while millions of our people suffer the

pain and indignity of poverty in all its forms.

At the same time, we turn once more to this world

body to say "We are going to need your continued support

to achieve the goal of the betterment of the conditions of

life of our people." We are pleased and inspired that both

the Secretary-General and the specialized agencies of the

United Nations have taken up the development challenge in

South Africa with the enthusiasm that they have shown.

We believe that it is in the common interest that we

sustain the common victory that we have scored in South

Africa, and take it further by achieving success not only in

politics but also in the socio-economic sphere.

It is perhaps common cause among us that everywhere

on our globe there is an unmistakable process leading to the

entrenchment of democratic systems of government. The

empowerment of the ordinary people of our world freely

to determine their destiny, unhindered by tyrants and

dictators, is at the very heart of the reason for the

existence of this Organization.

But it is equally true that hundreds of millions of

these politically empowered masses are caught in the

deathly trap of poverty, unable to live life in its fullness.

Out of all this are born social conflicts which

produce insecurity and instability, civil and other wars

that claim many lives, millions of desperate refugees and

the destruction of the little wealth that poor countries are

able to accumulate. Out of this cauldron are also born

tyrants, dictators and demagogues who not only take away

or restrict the rights of the people but also make it

impossible to do the things that must be done to bring

lasting prosperity to the people.

At the same time, the reality can no longer be

ignored that we live in an interdependent world which is

bound together to a common destiny. The very response

of the international community to the challenge of

apartheid confirmed this very point that we all

understood - that so long as apartheid existed in South

Africa, so long would the whole of humanity feel

demeaned and degraded.

The United Nations understood very well that racism

in our country could not but feed racism in other parts of

the world as well. The universal struggle against

apartheid was therefore not an act of charity arising out

of pity for our people, but an affirmation of our common

humanity. We believe that that act of affirmation requires

that this Organization should once more turn its focused

and sustained attention to the basics of everything that

makes for a better world for all humanity.

The elaboration of a new world order must, of

necessity, centre on this world body. In it we should find

the appropriate forum in which we can all participate to

help determine the shape of the new world.

The four elements that will need to be knit together

in fashioning that new universal reality are the issues of

democracy, peace, prosperity and interdependence.

The great challenge of our age to the United Nations

is to answer the question "Given the interdependence of

the nations of the world, what is it that we can and must

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Forty-ninth session 3 October 1994

do to ensure that democracy, peace and prosperity prevail

everywhere?"

We are aware of the fact that the United Nations is

addressing these questions in many ways; yet there can be

no gainsaying the fact that such progress as we have made

has been made more by stealth than in the bold and

determined fashion that the world crisis demands today.

Perhaps a new and forceful initiative is required. Such

an initiative should inspire all of humanity because of the

seriousness of its intent. It should also have a chance to

succeed because it will have been underwritten by the

commitment of the masses of the people in each member

country to join hands with other nations, to address together

the related issues of democracy, peace and prosperity in an

interdependent world.

We are aware of the fact that the dictates of realpolitik

militate against the speedy realization of such an initiative.

But we do believe that the reality of life and the realism of

policy will, at some point, bring to the fore the fact that the

delay we impose on ourselves today will serve only to

increase the pressure on all of us to incorporate, within

what we consider possible, a sustainable vision of a

common world that will rise or fall together.

Undoubtedly, to inspire greater confidence in itself

among all the member nations and to reflect better the

impulse towards the democratization of international

relations, the United Nations will have to continue looking

at itself to determine what restructuring of itself it should

effect. This process must naturally affect, among others,

the structure and functioning of the Security Council and

the peacemaking and peace-keeping issues raised by the

Secretary-General in "An Agenda for Peace".

Democratic South Africa rejoins the world community

of nations determined to play its role in helping to

strengthen the United Nations and to contribute what it can

to the furtherance of its purposes. Among other things, we

have this morning acceded to the covenants and

conventions adopted by this Organization, which address

various matters such as economic, social and cultural rights,

civil and political rights, and the elimination of all forms of

racial discrimination, to say nothing of our irrevocable

commitment to the realization of the objectives contained

in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We are determined to play our full part in all

processes that address the important question of the

non-proliferation and elimination of weapons of mass

destruction. Our Government has also decided to become

a signatory to the Convention on prohibition and

restrictions on the use of certain conventional weapons.

In a similar vein, we shall not be found wanting in

the quest for sustainable development that is in keeping

with the Rio de Janeiro Declaration on Environment and

Development as well as with Agenda 21.

Equally, our own national interest dictates that we

join forces with the United Nations and all its Member

States in the common struggle to contain and end the

traffic in narcotics.

Even in constitutional terms, we are committed to

the advancement of the objective of the emancipation of

women through the creation of a non-sexist society.

Apart from anything else, we are therefore actively

engaged in the preparations for what we are convinced

will be a successful Beijing Conference.

We are part of the region of southern Africa and the

continent of Africa. As members of the Southern African

Development Community and the Organization of African

Unity (OAU), and an equal partner with other Member

States, we will play our role in the struggles of these

organizations to build a continent and a region that will

help to create for themselves and all humanity a common

world of peace and prosperity.

Ours must become a continent free of such tragedies

as those that have afflicted our own country as well as

Rwanda, Somalia, Angola, Mozambique, the Sudan and

Liberia. Happily, the OAU is actively addressing the

issues of peace and stability on our continent.

We are greatly encouraged that the countries of our

region, faced with a crisis in Lesotho, acted together

speedily and, with the cooperation of the Government and

the people of that country, succeeded in demonstrating

that together we have the will to defend democracy, peace

and national reconciliation.

Furthermore, as members of the Non-Aligned

Movement and the Group of 77, we are committed

especially to the promotion of South-South cooperation

and to the strengthening of the voice of the poor and

disadvantaged in the ordering of world affairs.

We would like to take this opportunity to express

our appreciation to the members of the General Assembly

for the speed and readiness with which they accepted the

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General Assembly 14th meeting

Forty-ninth session 3 October 1994

credentials of democratic South Africa, enabling us to

participate in the work of the last General Assembly. We

are pleased to note that this same spirit characterized the

approach of other international organizations towards our

new democracy, including the Commonwealth and the

European Union.

We would like to close by congratulating you, Mr.

President, on your election to your high post, and we

express our confidence that you will guide the work of the

Assembly with the wisdom and sense of purpose for which

we admire you.

The millions across our globe who stand expectant at

the gates of hope look to this Organization to bring them

peace, to bring them life, to bring them a life worth living.

We pray that the new South Africa, which the General

Assembly helped bring into being and so warmly welcomed

among the community of nations, will, in its own and in the

wider interest, make its own contribution, however small,

to the realization of those hopes.

Our common humanity and the urgency of the knock

on the door of this great edifice demand that we must

attempt even the impossible.