Issued by the FW de Klerk Foundation on 02/02/2024 

The FW de Klerk Foundation’s Annual Conference in collaboration with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation took place at the Table Bay Hotel in Cape Town today, 2 February 2024.

Held in commemoration of the 34th anniversary of the speech by FW de Klerk that initiated South Africa’s constitutional transformation process, the theme of this year’s event was: South Africa at 30: Looking Back, Looking Forward and Looking Around.

“On 27 April, the new South Africa will celebrate its 30th birthday. We thought that this, the 34th anniversary of FW de Klerk’s speech to Parliament on 2 February 1990, would be an excellent opportunity to consider the progress that we have made in the last 30 years, where we stand now with regards to the goals we set ourselves in the 1993 and 1996 Constitutions and our likely trajectory for the future,” explained Dave Steward, FW de Klerk Foundation Chairman Emeritus.

Elita de Klerk, FW de Klerk Foundation Chairperson, opened the day’s proceedings with the assertion that: “The Foundation’s Annual Conference provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the progress we have made, to acknowledge the challenges that persist, and to charter a course forward in the spirit of collaboration.”

“Let us remember that the pursuit of justice requires a collective effort. May this conference be a forum for constructive dialogue, a space for the exchange of ideas and a catalyst for positive change,” she continued.

Esteemed guest speakers included Mr Trevor Manuel (Former Cabinet Minister, 1994 – 2014), Adv Kholeka Gcaleka (Public Protector) and Mr Geordin Hill-Lewis (Mayor of Cape Town).

“We invited Trevor Manuel to speak about the last 30 years of South African history primarily because of the leading role that he played in the first 15 years of our new society,” explained Mr Steward.

Mr Manuel opened his address by musing, “When I was standing toyi toying outside Parliament 30 years ago, I didn’t think I would be here addressing these issues today.”

He reflected on the “set of hugely significant political decisions announced 34 years ago – decisions that laid the basis for the inexorable and irrevocable changes that are manifested in our Constitution.”

Mr Manuel reminded the audience that, “One of the challenges that confronts us today is how to ensure that successive generations are aware of the journey that our country has traversed – a journey that needs to be embedded and taken forward.”

He went on to warn that, “If we don’t deal with these issues adequately – if we don’t embed experiences adequately, the risk is always that history may repeat itself in strange ways.”

He acknowledged the “plunge” that FW de Klerk took in 1990, and encouraged South Africans to remember that, “Societies have to deal with difficult issues so that they can progress together.”

Mr Trevor Manuel

Adv Gcaleka’s presentation followed.

“One of the primary guardians of our Constitution and our Bill of Rights is the office of the Public Protector. It is for this reason that we have invited Adv Kholeka Gcaleka, our new Public Protector, to speak to us about the present, and the defence of the core constitutional values on which the future of all our people depend,” explained Steward. “We have asked her to look at South Africa today, and to share her views on how we are doing with the realisation of the foundational values of the Constitution.”

Adv Gcaleka emphasised the importance of turning to the Constitution as “the blueprint of our constitutional democracy,” which has “paved the way for us to be where we are today.”

She encouraged attendees to reflect on the fundamental values and principles enshrined in the Constitution – particularly those of human dignity and the right to life – when working towards redressing the imbalances of the past and striving for an equitable society that is governed with openness, transparency, responsibility and accountability.

She urged all South Africans to take stock of where we are 34 years after the 2 February speech: “Have we attained what was envisioned by those negotiations? What have the stumbling blocks been, and how do we move forward? How do we ensure that our constitutional blueprint becomes a living document?”

Adv Kholeka Gcaleka 

Up next was Mr Hill-Lewis.

According to Mr Steward, “[The Foundation] thought that we should invite a young leader to share with us a vision of what South Africa might achieve in the next 30 years – how will we be able to achieve the goals in the preamble of our Constitution? We are delighted that our Mayor accepted our invitation to share with us his vision of the future.”

Mr Hill-Lewis inspired attendees by asserting that, “South Africa is an indescribably better place than it was when the speech was made in 1990 (and before that). We are a democracy, we have media freedom, we have a wonderful constitution.”

He went on, however, to share the sombre reminder: “But in many, many ways, that freedom does not mean a great deal to so many people – 11 million of them, in fact, who are unemployed and live in dire poverty and very harsh living conditions.”

According to Mr Hill-Lewis, “The way that we are going to build the future is by setting a clear set of national ambitions that refuses to accept or believe that our country can only decline; by making sure that we professionalise the civil service and end the policy of cadre deployment; by decentralising power down to active and energetic local governments; by investing in infrastructure that supports basic services and better services for the poor in particular; and by focusing our entire national economy and our society on economic growth, because without economic growth, you can’t pay for all those other things – you can’t lift people out of poverty.”

He concluded with a sentiment of which the audience could be duly proud: “I think that the way we are showing that this is possible in Cape Town provides a useful lesson for South Africa for our next 30 years – that indeed success is still possible. We don’t have to accept failure as our future. We still can have a prosperous country.”

Mr Geordin Hill-Lewis

“Today’s proceedings are about reminding people about the founding provisions of our Constitution. As a country, our national Constitution serves as a blueprint for development, peace, prosperity and progress. We cannot afford to deviate from that recipe – we have seen what doing so has led to over the past two decades,” asserted Mr Van der Rheede. “Let us stick to the recipe that FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela gave us to ensure that we all enjoy a future of peace and prosperity.”

The conference concluded with the presentation of the 2023 FW de Klerk Goodwill Award by Elita de Klerk to the Khaya Lam project of the Free Market Foundation.

The award, established in 2010, gives recognition to individuals and organisations that have made extraordinary contributions to the promotion of goodwill between South Africans.

The Khaya Lam Project was launched by the Free Market Foundation in 2013 and is managed by project managers and conveyancers around the country. It makes the ideal of property ownership a practical reality by helping qualifying disadvantaged South Africans, who live in homes formally owned by government, to obtain title deeds to their properties.

The FW de Klerk Foundation chose Khaya Lam as the recipient of this year’s Goodwill Award because property ownership transforms the lives of ordinary people everywhere: it gives them dignity; it empowers them; it provides security – and opens up new economic opportunities for them.

Catch up on the full conference online here.