ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT J G ZUMA AT THE UNVEILING OF THE BUST AND
ALLOCATION OF A CHAMBER TO FORMER ANC SECRETARY GENERAL DUMA NOKWE, SANDTON
05 DECEMBER 2009
Programme Director,
The Nokwe family,
Former President of the Republic, Mr. Thabo Mbeki
Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mr Jeff Radebe
Representatives of the General Council of the Bar
Representatives of the Johannesburg Bar,
National Chairperson of the ANC, Ms Baleka Mbethe
The Duma Nokwe Group of Advocates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning to all of you.
It is a great privilege for me to be afforded this opportunity to honour one
of the great sons of South Africa and the ANC.
Duma Nokwe is part of a generation of leaders whose selfless sacrifice to the
struggle laid the foundation for the freedom we enjoy today.
It is a fitting salute to our 15 years of democracy that today, the Duma Nokwe
Chamber is opened, 53 years after the great man was barred from opening offices
in the City of Johannesburg.
Like many leaders of that time Duma Nokwe had humble beginnings. He was born
in 1927 in Evaton to a working class family.
An exceptional student he studied at St Peters Secondary School and later
completed a B.Sc degree at Fort Hare in 1949. Having completed a teaching
diploma he entered the profession.
Having come under the influence of both Madiba and Walter Sisulu he joined the
ANC Youth League and played an active role in the Defiance Campaign of the
1950s.
Like many other teachers of his time he was dismissed for his political
involvement.
This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because Comrade Nokwe thereafter
studied Law at Wits University, while teaching at the privately-run Central
Indian School.
Following a visit to the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries he
was banned by the apartheid regime. Nevertheless he completed his LLB in 1955
and qualified to practise as an advocate.
However, the provisions of the Group Areas Act meant that he was not allowed
to open offices with other Johannesburg-based advocates. Today’s occasion is
thus more significant as it highlights the long road to democracy that we have
traveled.
This also allows us to celebrate our democracy. We should be proud of what we
have achieved thus far.
As one of the accused in the Treason Trial, Comrade Nokwe put his legal
experience to good use as an unofficial member of the defence team.
As one of the last treason trialists to be acquitted, he was jailed and
banned, and eventually forced to flee the country in 1963. A prolific writer,
he worked for the ANC in exile.
Based in Lusaka, Comrade Nokwe’s work in the diplomatic spheres helped the ANC
gain international recognition in the fight against apartheid.
I am happy that in a few day’s time I will visit Zambia which hosted Duma
Nokwe and many other ANC cadres during the seemingly hopeless days of the
struggle. I intend to pay my respects to him at his resting place in that
wonderful country that supported us so extensively.
A renowned internationalist, he was a well-known figure at the United Nations,
OAU and the various anti-apartheid organizations throughout the world.
He was also the voice of the ANC as he broadcast over Radio Freedom, the
organisation’s policies to an ever-widening audience.
He was used by the organization to communicate ANC messages and policies.
His selfless dedication eventually took a toll on his health and he passed
away at the very young age of 50 on 12 January 1978 in Lusaka.
His outstanding abilities were best summarized by Comrade Oliver Tambo, then
ANC President, who remarked at Comrade Nokwe’s funeral service that while he
taught Comrade Nokwe at school, in politics, OR became a student of Duma
Nokwe’s!
Ladies and gentlemen,
Duma Nokwe was a staunch advocate for human rights, sacrificing his life for
the attainment of ideals he believed in.
The first black advocate to be admitted to the Transvaal Supreme Court, he was
an icon to many.
Duma Nokwe belonged to a tradition of lawyers who fought for this democracy.
He used his knowledge of the law as an instrument to fight for human rights.
Following in the footsteps of Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Nelson Mandela, Oliver
Tambo and many others he represented a generation of the legal fraternity who
used the law to push the boundaries of what constituted human rights.
All our heroes and stalwarts like Comrade Nokwe would be happy that for the
first time in our history we have a Constitution that has an entrenched Bill of
Rights with a wide variety of protected rights and freedoms.
It is essential that we work towards ensuring that these rights are enjoyed by
all our people.
The struggles of comrade Nokwe served as a reminder of the hard road that we
have traveled. It also reminds us of the road still to be journeyed towards the
full transformation of the legal profession.
This would make us fulfill the ideals of the Freedom Charter and the country’s
Constitution, which state that all are equal before the law.
As government and the ruling party we are working hard to fulfill
transformation goals. We invite the legal profession to continue prioritise
this important task.
As the ruling party we would want to see faster progress on transformation
during this term of office. We do not want to be asked in four year’s time when
we celebrate 20 years of freedom, why many transformation issues still remain
unresolved.
That is why we also appointed a Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Council
comprising 19 members from the legal, business, labour and community sectors to
help us drive economic transformation.
With regards to the legal profession, the Constitution of the Republic compels
us to ensure that the judiciary reflects the racial and gender composition of
our country.
To help us to fulfill our responsibilities, there must be a readily available
pool to choose from. However, the racial and gender composition of members of
the General Council of the Bar of South Africa indicate that like other
professions, the legal profession still has some way to go.
Out of 2103 members, there are 1309 white males, 281 white females, 209 black
males, 61 black females, 41 coloured males, 32 coloured females, 109 Indian
males and 61 Indian females.
We have seen and are proud of the outstanding performance of black and female
legal practitioners at all levels of the profession.
We therefore urge the profession to work harder to promote transformation and
youth development. We welcome the commitment of the Duma Nokwe group of
advocates in this regard.
Transformation also includes promoting access to justice.
Poverty is still one of the major barriers for our people in enjoying or
exercising their right of access to justice.
Some of the poverty related factors, which inhibit access to courts or
justice, includes the high cost of hiring defence lawyers.
People also report challenges in receiving legal assistance from the Legal Aid
Board, a matter we are looking into.
We said in the State of the Nation address that we would work hard to
establish a transformed, integrated, modernised, properly-resourced and
well-managed criminal justice system.
Amongst these is the need to improve the efficiency of the courts and the
performance of prosecutors, and to enhance detective, forensic and intelligence
services.
We added that we would ensure that we increase the number of prosecutors and
Legal Aid Board personnel as well as police detectives. We are already
implementing these measures.
The long distances that many of our people have to travel in order to access
the courts and related services is another problem we are trying to minimize.
This we are attending to by bringing justice closer to the people as much as we
can especially in rural areas.
We also want to make justice more proactive in assisting the poor, and more
preventative in nature. This means that we must in essence improve our social
crime prevention mechanisms, to eliminate social causes of crime.
We must also make our system more proactive in the sense of being able to stop
crime before it happens.
We have instances where the police would say to people who report threats that
they must wait until “something happens” first before they report!
It must be possible to deal with the matter before a person is harmed. It is
usually the poor, who have no money to apply for restrictive and protective
court orders, who are the victims of such lethargy from the police.
Compatriots, this being December, we emphasise human rights. We highlight the
rights of women and children not to be abused, the rights of people living with
disabilities and the rights of our people to have access to health care and
other key social services.
On the 1st of December we unveiled new treatment measures and called for an
end to stigma, silence, discrimination and shame surrounding HIV and AIDS.
We want to work with all South Africans to ensure that we strengthen
prevention, which is our most powerful weapon in fighting this disease.
We appeal to you, to work with us in this fight against AIDS. Help us promote
the notion of individual responsibility to stop the spread of HIV.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Last night we hosted the Final Draw of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Over 200
million people around the world focused their eyes on Cape Town in celebration
of our long walk to freedom.
It is because of the sacrifices of our leaders such as Comrade Duma Nokwe that
we were able to host the world and give hope to millions in the continent that
Africa’s time has indeed come.
In that spirit of celebrating achievement and excellence, it gives me great
pleasure to open the Duma Nokwe Chambers and unveil the bust of Duma Nokwe.
Let the chamber be a constant reminder of Duma Nokwe who was not only a
staunch nationalist but an equally staunch internationalist, who used every
inch of his ability to work for justice, human rights and the liberation of his
people.
I thank you.
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