FULL REMARKS: Dr Mbongiseni Buthelezi speaks at the Concordia Forum’s 3rd Annual Diplomatic Reception on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly

The need for solidarity now.

I come from South Africa. From there the world seems to be in a perilous state. We are in the age of 'might is right'. Might is being directed at various countries: Iran and Cuba are facing the severest and most devastating of the exercise of might at present. Many other countries have been slapped with tariffs in an attempt to bend them to the will of the wanna-be mighty with devastating consequences. My own country has not been spared. We are accused of prosecuting a genocide against Afrikaners and/or farmers. Allegedly we are confiscating their land and murdering them.

We have been here before. It was called the 'swart gevaar' (black danger) during apartheid. White people were taught through popular media and political rhetoric to fear that there were dangerous black people lurking everywhere who were coming to kill them in their beds and confiscate their homes and ultimately their whole country. We overcame this fear-mongering. In 1994 we gained liberation. Nelson Mandela played a pivotal role in building bridges between all communities to bring about tolerance and avert a potential civil war between white people on one side and black and brown on the other. You have all heard about the South African reconciliation process. That work is incomplete and still needs us to continue dialoguing and learning to live together as diverse peoples. But now our journey as a nation is being challenged by the deployment of might to make demands that our Constitution be subverted and our domestic political and policy issues be determined by fiat. 

Unfortunately, the demand is not going to work. In our democracy It is not possible to govern through executive orders. If our President tried to bend the law to do so, we would be in court challenging him. We would also be out in the streets in our numbers to demand that he resigns.

Let me end off by saying, South Africa has a 350-year history of racialised oppression. We overcame the most obvious of this oppression when we gained liberation in 1994. We are now in a long process of slowly righting the wrongs of that past through affirmative action, land reform and other measures. It has only been 32 years. Right wing movements fear the South African project of equality because supremacists do not like how the world looks when there is diversity, equity and inclusion. What we need now more than ever, therefore, is solidarity and support from people who value justice, equality and freedom for all. I hope we can count on all of you in this room.