REMARKS BY KZN PREMIER SIHLE ZIKALALA DURING THE KZN SPORTS AWARDS CEREMONY, INKOSI ALBERT LUTHULI ICC, 12 OCTOBER 2019
Programme Director;
Our Host: His Worship, The Mayor of eThekwini, Cllr Mxolisi Kaunda;
Honourable Minister Nathi Mthethwa;
MEC Hlengiwe Mavimbela and other MECs present;
President of KZN Sports Federation, Mr Thami Mchunu;
Leaders of Sporting Bodies and Associations;
Social Partners;
Our Sportsmen and Sportswomen;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
I am truly honoured to say a few words to the inspiring heroes and heroines who are raising our flag high in the various sporting codes in our province.
Many of you are following in the footsteps of many outstanding daughters and sons of KZN who have excelled in sports not just in the province or nationally, but also internationally.
An evening like this one allows us therefore to pay tribute to our current stars, but also to thank those who excelled before.
When we take a leaf through our achievements, we can be proud that against the odds, we represent the African calabash that nurtures sporting excellence.
KwaZulu-Natal is known here at home and across the seas for some of its finest athletes like Professor Mlungisi Ngubane, Willie Mtolo, Penelope “Penny” Haynes, Chad Le Clos, Hashim Amla and many more.
Through sports, we are able to unite our citizens, men and women, black and white, full-bodied and disabled, rural and urban, rich and poor.
In our province, sports is at the centre of nation building and social cohesion programmes.
It was founding President Nelson Mandela who once remarked that:
“Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”
So we urge all of you to go out there and use sport to achieve the dream that Madiba communicated for our nation. This is the dream of attaining a united, non-racial, non-sexist, equal, and prosperous society.
As Premier, I am often confronted with the daily challenges that face ordinary people across the length and breadth of our province.
These challenges often weigh heavily because from them one could easily wallow in sorrow in the belief that these challenges confronting our nation are just too many and insurmountable.
But you, our sport men and women, are that silent reminder that although we are divided across socio-economic lines, our strength is our unity; unity in our diversity.
Seated among you are people who represent every facet of South African life.
Amongst you are those who have parents and grandparents who have never had the opportunity to go to school. Those who had to toil hard to put the little they could to give you better opportunities than the ones they themselves had.
Amongst you are athletes who have lived under grinding poverty conditions but worked hard to use sport as a liberator from communities ravaged with inequality, unemployment and hopelessness.
It tells of a determination to be better than ones afflictions and to overcome one’s given conditions. It speaks of the tenacity of spirit to overcome adversity and to triumph over misfortune with willpower or sheer determination.
Our sports ambassadors this evening tell us of your steely determination to overcome social hardships.
It tells us about the fortitude to overcome indiscipline and delinquencies that destroy our communities.
It sets you as an inspiration for those who may have lost hope, those who may feel unworthy and those who languish without opportunity. You are shouting for the highest of our province that where there is will, there is always a way to get there.
Many South Africans are looking at you to remind us what it means to be a united nation. Here among you are those who have been blessed with opportunities to go to schools with all the resources to help you to succeed.
Some of you may never know what it is like to go to bed without a meal. But that does not make you less South African; it does not mean you have not worked hard to get here and it does not mean you do not belong in our rainbow nation.
If anything, this is what sport does for South Africans. It gives those whose have had opportunities the humility to count their blessings while sharing with those less fortunate than themselves.
When I look at our sports champions, I see the as South Africa that Nelson Mandela dreamt of. I see great talent that is united it its diversity. Sportspeople where your race, sexual orientation, socio-economic status is not used to divide but to unify.
By participating in sport, you are sharing a singular status, all of you are South Africans and all of you have one objective in mind; that is to make your province and country proud.
Please continue to use sports wisely to learn about each other, to learn each other’s languages, to exchange cultural norms and to share ideas about how you can make our country better.
You who are gifted with talents must put them to the good of not only yourselves and families, but for humanity as a whole. You a have a duty to do better for others than what has been done for you.
Those of us who have had some opportunity, those of us who are gifted, those of us who are wiser, those of us who know our calling, must do better to serve others and to lead.
We all have the duty to use our natural talents to brighten the corner where we are. We have a duty to serve our nation with purpose and conviction; to reclaim our humanity without entitlement; to create value; to give hope and inspire change.
We are confident that our winners will use their accolades to fight for justice and create prosperity of all. You must say that out of your efforts every South African must know that they can reach as far as they dream.
I hope that you will seize this opportunity to contribute to Madiba’s struggle to build a united nation of which you are an embodiment.
I pray that you will shoulder the hopes and aspiration of our country with humility and consciousness that you are representing the best of our nationhood.
For our country sport is an invaluable pillar for social cohesion, our common nationhood and for promoting national symbols.
As I sit down, I want to encourage all our athletes and leaders in our province to follow the courageous story and journey of Mr Fred Khumalo.
We must all support Mr Khumalo and cheer him on the longest walk that he has embarked upon.
This year marks the 120 years of the beginning of the South African War – previously called the Anglo-Boer War. Author and journalist Fred Khumalo has written a novel titled, “The Longest Journey” to explore a largely unknown story of Zulu migrant workers and their women and children who after realising there were no trains because of the war, decided to walk from Johannesburg to Durban.
After ten days, the long and excruciating journey of these 7000 men and women ended in Ladysmith. On Monday, Mr Khumalo began his one man walk from Johannesburg, following in the footsteps of these multitudes 120 years ago. Mr Khumalo has set his eyes to be in Durban by the 17th of October 2019 where he will be launching his book, “The Longest Walk.”
We invite Mr Khumalo and many of our champions in sports and the creative arts to join our provincial government to build lasting peace and national unity.
We look to him and all of you to work with us to end gender based violence and the abuse of children in our country.
We look to all of you to promote healthy lifestyles and fight lifestyle diseases which are reported to be on the increase.
Above all, we look to all of you to celebrate the tenacity of the human spirit and to excel in all that we do.
Let us continue to support our national team, the Springboks in Japan and hope they can give us that Madiba moment and magic as they did in 1995 when they won the Rugby World Cup and went far to unite our nation.
Once again, congratulation to all the worthy winners this evening!
Let Us Grow South Africa Together!
I thank you!