Real, deep and meaningful friendships are rare and difficult to come by.   I was fortunate to have a few close friends who inspired and motivated me to continue working in the fight for rights for all.

This morning, I would like to talk about my friendship with two such friends – Nelson Mandela and Bram Fischer – whose struggles may have been aligned, but were in themselves unique. Alongside them, we played our parts in working to create a new, united South Africa, and part of what I hope to convey this morning is the vision for the country that we shared.

It is a pleasure for me to address this inaugural conference of the Centre for Unity in Diversity.  

The Centre’s goal is to promote the vision of unity in diversity that is articulated in the preamble to the Constitution. The time for such a Centre is ripe – because the concept of South Africa as a multicultural country in which all our communities enjoy equal respect and dignity is under growing pressure.