The full speech prepared for delivery by President CyrilRamaphosa on his inauguration as South Africa's 5th democratic president.
Your Majesties, Kings and Queens, Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Government, Chairperson of SADC and President of Namibia, Dr Hage Geingob, Former President Thabo Mbeki and Mrs Mbeki, Former President Kgalema Motlanthe and Mrs Motlanthe, Former President FW de Klerk and Mrs De Klerk, All former Heads of State and Government, Chairpersons of the African Union and African Union Commission, Distinguished representatives of respective countries and of international organisations, Speaker of...
As South Africa, we are honoured and deeply humbled by the presence here of leaders from across the African continent. We are profoundly grateful to you for choosing to celebrate Africa Day among us, giving further poignancy to South Africa’s transformation from a pariah state to a full and valued member of the family of African nations.
Despite our most earnest efforts, many South Africans still go to bed hungry, many succumb to diseases that can be treated, many live lives of intolerable deprivation. Too many of our people do not work especially the youth. We are bound together by our determination that never again shall the adversities of our past be visited on the people of this land. It is a time for us to make the future we yearn for. South Africans want action and not just words and promises. It is through our actions now that we will give form to the society for which so many have fought and sacrificed and for which all of us yearn. They yearn for a society in which our worth is determined by how we value others.
Today, let us declare before the esteemed witnesses gathered here that such a South Africa is possible. Let us forge a compact – not merely as business and labour, not as those who govern and those who are governed – but as citizens and patriots of this great nation, free and equal and resolute. Let us work together to fundamentally, and forever, change the relations of power between men and women.
A society where disability is no impediment, where there is tolerance, and where no person is judged on their sexual orientation, where no person suffers prejudice because of the colour of their skin, the language of their birth or their country of origin. Humanity has achieved a great deal over the intervening millennia and all by virtue of talents which evolved in Africa.
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