SPEECH BY COMRADE DALI TAMBO AT THE OR TAMBO SCHOOL OF LEADERSHIP
Mr President
Former President, Kgalema Motlanthe
Dr David Masondo and members of the Board of the ORT School of Leadership.
Ms Zengisizwe Msimang CEO of the OATF. My Wife Rachel Tambo and her family
from UK
Ladies and Gentlemen
On behalf of the whole Tambo family and the OATF, I wish to express our sincere thanks for the great honor you bestow on Oliver Tambo in naming this School of Leadership after him. I also congratulate you for creating this much needed institute of intellectual discourse and learning. As you know, Oliver Tambo would rejoice that your vision of a centre of excellence for political Education has come to fruition. He loved education, analytical and critical thinking.
He loved and always encouraged debate, the contest of ideas, the art of logical deduction and reasoned persuasion. He was throughout most of his adult life a Teacher – whether teaching Maths & Science at St Peters or through his time as a lawyer with Madiba or in the South African Revolution he was leading. He was a lover of Philosophy and history. He would therefore applaud your lofty aims and objectives
It was wonderful to see that one of the courses will be on ethics and integrity. In a documentary we are completing on ORT, Mavuso Msimang reminds us that OR in speaking of a future free & democratic government always emphasized democratic and ethical. His own life of ethics and Integrity is a powerful example for those teaching this course.
Ladies and Gentlemen, please be assured of our full support and please reserve next year a place for my son Oliver Tambo – I was going to send him in his holidays to Luthuli House to learn about the Movement – but now I will send him to you!
I would like to extend a permanent invitation to your staff and particularly your students to regularly visit the Long March to Freedom statues that are situated at Maropeng because we are also a political school, with 100 life size Bronze statues of South African icons stretching over 350 years of our history. We are not only a must see Liberation & Heritage Tourism attraction for domestics &
Foreign Tourists, we struggle history and education. We currently enjoy visitation from Tourists and Schools ranging from 500 to 700 a day.
Our plan over the coming years is to make this Pantheon of Immortals 400 strong if we get government commitment and financial support –something we have not had for 3 years. But Ladies and Gentleman at 100 statues we are already the world’s biggest display of representational life size bronze statues and statues of black human rights activists and revolutionary on earth.
From the Khoison resisters of the 1600’s such as Domain, the Sturman Brothers to Hintsa, Shaka and Maqoma through the centuries and decades of the 20th century it is not just the story of the people of South Africa – it is also the his and her story of the ANC, Africa’s oldest and perhaps greatest historical liberation movement ending in 1994. Dube and the founders of the ANC are there — Biko,
Sobukwe, Luthuli, Lillian Ngoyi, Slovo and many of South Africa’s best, brightest and bravest are “ Walking to freedom” with Castro, Machel, Nyere, Dr Martin Luther king, Olof Palmer and Trevor Huddleston.
It really is a wonder to behold and represent a continuous calibre of committed selfless leadership across many generations it is emotive audacious and wildly popular with visitors black and white.
I would like to close by extending a special invitation to you, Mr President to visit the Long March to Freedom exhibition before the elections so that the Ancestors, all 100 of them whose values you cherish and fight for, to bless you, our leadership and Movement in the upcoming elections.
Please Sir, grace them with your presence, come and feel their collective force willing you on to complete the sacred mission of political and economic liberty.
90% of them never saw freedom but through their incredible sacrifices ensured that one day we would. To all those involved, good luck with the OR Tambo School of Leadership – you have our support, admiration and great expectations.
Thank You
