Speech by MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza
Willie Bokala Salute Dinner
SAB Beer House, Newtown
30 June 2012
Good Day ladies and Gentlemen
"The pen is mightier than the sword" is a phrase coined by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 for his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy.
How often have we either heard or used this phrase in our conversations without paying due diligence to its impact. Since the pen is used to express ideas and the sword is used to impose one's will by superior violence, the statement really means that ideas have more influence than violence. In fact, the sword can only destroy, but the ideas expressed by the pen can build. The pen, therefore, is the vehicle of thought, and ideas have helped man over centuries to rise above savage and harsh conditions.
In South Africa, the validation of this phrase was on June 16 1976, a day violently etched on the South African conscience. On that cold winter morning, hundreds of unarmed Soweto school children were either injured or killed, when armed security police fired at them. Their crime, demanding an education equal to their white counterparts and demanding they be taught in a medium understood to them, and thus afford them an opportunity to escape the poverty trap and empower themselves.
And in the midst of the thousands of the young marchers were journalists, who braved both the elements and compromised their own safety and security in pursuit of truth and justice. And among those brave journalists was Mr Willie Bokala, whom we have assembled here today to honoured, a few weeks after the 36th anniversary of the Soweto Uprisings.
Much has been said about the events of June 16 1976, some contradictory in facts and perception, however, even with the many dissenting voices about what led or happened on June 16, there is one common agreement that June 16 1976, forever changed the political landscape of our country.
As the month of June, which we have set aside in South Africa as Youth Month, draws to an end, we continue to commemorate the gallant struggles of the youth during the apartheid era and to celebrate their contribution to the liberation of this country. This year, the 36th Anniversary of the events of June 1976, we remember the students and community members who lost their lives in that important milestone of the liberation struggle.
And while we pay homage to those thousands of young heroes of June 16, the unsung heroes of that day are the journalists like Mr Bokala who despite their own safety and security, covered the events of that day and brought to the fore, the inhumane brutality of the Apartheid regime. On that day, the world saw first-hand the cruelty and demonic Apartheid system at play. On that day Mr Bokala used his pen to relay messages through the World Newspaper and informed the world of what had happened. On June 17 1976, he wrote in the World Newspaper: “It was at Orlando West, near the Orlando West High School where the law, in its own fashion, gave a hearing to their grievances. Tear-gas bombs and gun bullets were the redress they got."
As a result of what the world read and saw through the media, in October 1976, for the first time in the history of the United Nations, a representative of the majority of the people of South Africa, namely the ANC, was allowed and invited to share the prestigious rostrum with the representatives of the independent and sovereign nations and peoples of the world. And the United Nations General Assembly decided to consider the problem of apartheid in plenary meetings and to permit representatives of the South African liberation movements to speak in the plenary meetings.
O.R Tambo, then President of the ANC, represented the people of South Africa and during that momentous speech, quoted Mr Bokala’s writing in the World Newspaper and urged the United Nations to act swiftly against the Apartheid Government. Within months, sanctions were imposed on the Apartheid regime, weakening their economic muscle.
And true to its nature, and for redress of their grievance and bravery, Mr Bokala and thousands were held in prisons, where systematic murders of Africans took place behind the secrecy of those prison walls.
Journalists, children and their parents were scattered across the cities and towns, while some fled to far-flung countries of the world. For Mr Bokala however, begun a life of harassment by the security forces, and he was subsequently arrested in September 1976, under the Suppression of Communism Act. His pen had begun to show its might against the Apartheid system.
For thousands of exiles around the world, it was his pen and bravery that kept us abreast of the happenings within our country. Mr Bokala had stuck close to the organisers of the June 16 march and gave the world their story as they hopped from one hideout to another.
We got to know of the Soweto Students Representative Council, of the leader Tsietsi Mashinini and of his cabinet, people like Khotso Seatlholo and Murphy Morobe through the writings of Mr Bokala. As South Africans, we read the newspaper and your articles with pride, as you embodied our communities, and told us the story of the uprising, you told the world of our children’s pain, sadness and courage.
How then, does one in a few words, pay the respect due to someone of such character and pedigree?
Rosalyn Yalow, Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology and Medicine said “If we want to start moving towards equality we must believe in ourselves or no one will believe in us; we must match our aspirations with competence, courage and determination to succeed; and we must feel a personal responsibility to ease the path of those who come afterwards..”
Yalow’s words offer the most befitting tribute to you Mr. Bokala, our country and people will forever be grateful to you for having using the most powerful tool available to you, your pen, to bring to the fore the atrocities our people endured. You indeed embodied and lived the saying, that the pen is mightier than the sword, and have lived that and thus paved the way for hundreds of young journalist who today also join me in thanking you for having being a brave and courageous patriot of our struggle against Apartheid. Your pen brought to its knees the machinery of apartheid, and equarely birthed the liberation we all enjoy today. You, along with other brave journalists, paved the way for young journalists today enjoy the freedoms and liberties where press freedom is guaranteed and entrenched in our Constitution. Enjoy your retirement and we trust and hope you will continue using your pen to teach and inspire us all.
In closing, as a politician I would be failing in my duties to not remind the young journalists gathered here to use their pens to write about the Gauteng Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development and Department of Social Development, departments which I am MEC for!!!!
Thank you
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