The FW de Klerk Foundation decided to dedicate its annual conference this year to the consideration of the future of multiculturalism in South Africa. 

We did so because of the strains that have been developing in relations between our communities and because of the central importance of reaching agreement on how communities in our complex multicultural society should relate to one another in the future.  These are questions that will play a key role in determining the long-term success of our society and the security and happiness of all our peoples.

Firstly, let me start by thanking former President de Klerk for the role he played in bringing about real change to our country.  When all the noise has died down future historians will judge positively the role you played in the liberations of all South Africans, black and white.  Real leaders make difficult and selfless choices and become statesman, and you did just that.  You and President Mandela crossed the dangerous Rubicon when you were called upon to do so.

So many academic papers and treatises have been written about coloured identity that I am not going to revisit the usual arguments set forth when this topic is addressed. Not least because it was the label that determined my entire life under apartheid, but also because it still follows me wherever I go. 1994 did nothing to save me from this classification and today I feel quite ambivalent talking about colouredness.

The issue of the language of education at schools and universities is obviously a very timely and topical one given the increasing shift towards the use of English not only as the main medium of education, but even the exclusive official language used in instruction and administration in an increasing number of South African schools and universities.

US Nobel Prize economist Milton Friedman said a policy should not be measured by its intentions but by its outcomes. For this reason, this summit is very timely as it has become necessary to reflect on the multicultural outcomes of the constitutional dispensation to prevent us from ending up in an irreversible slide towards monoculturalism.The importance of multiculturalism

Allow me to begin with expressing how much pleasure it gives us to work with the FW de Klerk Foundation as a partner.

In the past few years the partnership between the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the FW de Klerk Foundation as well as with its Centre for Constitutional Rights (CFCR) has been most productive and fruitful. We have jointly hosted many conferences, workshops and seminars on important constitutional topics that are pertinent for a sustainable democratic future of South Africa.

It is a great pleasure for me to be able to address you this afternoon. 

When we consider the challenges that confront us, when we read of gloom and despondency, we should step back for a moment and remember two consoling thoughts:  that we live in one of the most beautiful and vibrant cities in the world; and that this is by far the best time in human history.