The DP of the ANC and country Cyril Ramaphosa spoke at the University of Fort Here today. Thought I should share just one of the sections that interested me in the speech: Oliver Tambo was an internationalist. He understood that the freedom of his people could not be divorced from the freedom of all people everywhere. He sought to build strong bonds of solidarity with other nations, not only so that South Africa may be free, but so that together we could build a better world. We have just returned from Lesotho, a neighbour that stood by us during the darkest moments of our history – a neighbour that paid a heavy price for its support for the struggles of the South African people. We recall with great sadness the Maseru massacre of 1982, in which 30 South Africans and 12 Basotho were killed at the hands of the apartheid state. We recall the words of Oliver Tambo at the funeral of those who died, when he said: “These events have united us because, your Majesty, your people responded to this massacre with the courage that is part of their tradition and part of their history.” That relationship has survived to this day. It motivates the efforts of SADC to bring stability to the Kingdom of Lesotho. The courage of the Basotho that Oliver Tambo spoke about in 1982 remains in evidence today, as all parties in the country work towards a common resolution of the challenges they currently face.
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:23:16 +0000
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