SPEECH DELIVERED BY SBU NDEBELE, ANC PROVINCIAL CHAIRPERSON AND MEC FOR TRANSPORT IN KZN AT DURBAN DIWALI FESTIVAL HELD AT DURBAN BAY OF PLENTY ON 30 OCTOBER 1999

On the annual occasion of Diwali I as a South African am proud and happy to be an observer and participant in the celebrations. Observing the event of Diwali, almost all my adult life, I have come to the conclusion of the significance and the diversity of Diwali adds to the likeness of our South African culture. Nobody in his or her right mind can say Diwali does not belong to South Africa, especially with regard to its significance. But with particular reference to my Hindu compatriots, who have retained their Hindu religion and constitute nearly two-thirds of our countries Indian population. I on behalf of the ANC, am grateful that they constantly remind us that Diwali is celebrated to signify the victory of enlightenment of our ignorance.

It was on the basis of ignorance and prejudice, fear and greed that apartheid flourished, that racial discrimination was entrenched in the laws of the land. Ofcourse, there were Hindus what aided and bettered apartheid. And the area Hindus who continue to aid and abet prejudice, radicalism and fear. And on that basis of these build social and political relationship with certain tendencies in our country. These tendencies thrive on prejudice, social and political fear, greed.

As a participant what am I participating in? is it only in the rituals, customs and merriment of Diwali? Or is it in the fundamental force of enlightenment?

When I and fellow SA citizens spent years languishing in Robben Island, we made a choice to suffer for our country's liberation. And our country's liberation was essentially the liberation of our people from hunger, and disease, liberation from poverty and illiteracy, liberation from ignorance and homelessness. Muslims and Christians who have forgotten their heritage and are in cahoots with people and their racial groups who did not lift a finger to liberate the vast masses of our people from their deprivation and dispossession. Have you forgotten the suffering of our people at the hands of Group Areas Act; have you forgotten the plight of your grand parents, who came as labours? have you forgotten who benefited from Group Areas Act and systematic dispossession of people living in Mayville, Sea View, Riverside and such places? My participation in Diwali is to constantly remember those evils in our history so that we may make the right choices based on a deep moral law of the festival. I will pray to God that the choices I make socially, politically and economically will never negate the principles if Raam's going into banishment and returning to his kingdom to ensure that the foundation of social justice, fair play and goodness will manifest in everything we do together. In other words that all of us will serve the poorest of the poor, because without this there will be NO PEACE.

Diwali reminds us, year in and your our that the real world is indeed beneath the surface. I am in no way asking you change your customs, traditions and forms of worship. But like the great leaders of the Hindu faith, it is becoming clearer in my mind that the current environment in our country and the world at large we need to address the issues that militate against the value system of Raam.

Without social justice there is no Raam. We cannot allow Raam to begin and end in our temples only. We seek the rule, the governance of Raam. And, this can only happen through social justice, co-existence and harmony among us all. This is what the ANC declare to be a BETTER LIFE FOR ALL.

And in conclusion, regardless of the texture of one's hair and the colour of one's skin, if Gandhi or Raam were around today, they would be pioneering a BETTER LIFE FOR ALL - ON THE BASIS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE.

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