Speech for the Fashion Industry Awards of South Africa (FIASA)
27 November 2024
Good Evening.
I just want to give a huge acknowledgement to the Fashion Industry Awards of South Africa (FIASA) team first and foremost.
Thobela! Avuxeni! Ndi Matsheloni! Molweni! Dumelang!
The national youth day this year takes place on the day we are also celebrating Father’s Day. We urge you to continue to support your children and families. Your role is beyond your immediate children and families. We also urge the children and families to spoil your fathers today.
Good Morning.
Today, I greet all the women of South Africa as your President.
I greet you also as a son born of a woman, as a brother to a sister, as a husband and as a father of daughters.
On this Women’s Day, I pay tribute to South Africa’s women.
Exactly thirty years ago on this day, freedom’s bell rang across our great land. It rang in every city, every town and every village.
Sixty-four years have passed since the ground on which we gather here in Sharpeville bore witness to one of the worst atrocities committed by the apartheid regime against the South African people.
Every year on this day we celebrate our greatest achievement: reconciliation between the races and the forging of a common identity as South Africans.
Today, the 24th of September, is the day of promoting and preserving our collective memory as a people. We are a country united in our diversity. We belong to great women and men who stood and fought for the South Africa of our dreams. A South Africa that is non-racial, non-sexist, democratic, united and indeed prosperous. We are one people.
Today, as men and women, we celebrate the beautiful mothers of our nation, our sisters, our grandmothers, our aunts, our daughters. Together, we thank the women of South Africa for the role they play in the life of our nation.
We are gathered here this afternoon to witness a milestone in our democracy, the signing of a Constitutional Amendment to recognise Sign Language as the 12th official language of South Africa. On the 2nd of May 2023 Parliament voted for the Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Bill that amends Section 6 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
It is an honour for me to speak at this National Youth Day Commemoration hosted by the Free State as we mark the 47th anniversary of the June 16th uprising. This is a significant event in our nation's calendar because it allows us to pay tribute to the young men and women whose lives were cut short at the hands of the inhumane apartheid regime.
