FW de Klerk - Former State President of the Republic of South Africa & Nobel Peace Laureate

"I am an Afrikaner. My ancestors came to Africa more than three centuries ago, seeking freedom from religious persecution. They embraced their new country. They called themselves Afrikaners - Africans. They turned their face away from Europe toward the hinterland of Africa. They wanted more than anything else to rule themselves as a free African people. They twice defended their freedom in bitter struggles against the most powerful European empire of the time."

Anneline Kriel-Bacon - Former Miss South Africa & Miss World 1974

"I have travelled and I’ve seen, from the coaldust of Witbank to the stardust of Hollywood. I have had opportunities to settle in New York or London but my African blood always brought me home."

Mewa Ramgobin - Member of Parliament, Foreign Affairs & Finance

"Sitting, standing at the southern tip of Africa, at her feet, am I. A grandchild of an Indian Indentured Labourer. Contemplating at my continent’s feet which is awash by both the Indian and the Atlantic - warm and cold currents of a common sea, I ask, “who am I?” The answer, simple! I am a man; human." 

Helen Suzman - Former Opposition Member of Parliament of the Republic of South Africa

"I am an African who lives in the South and who does not intend to emigrate. The South Africa I live in today is a much better place than it was 10 years ago. I have to confess that I am not very hopeful about any positive results flowing from this UN Conference on Racism, etc. Since 1948 the UN has made repeated and futile attempts to eradicate racism and xenophobia. These are chronic diseases which cannot be cured by pious resolutions at conferences. The R100 million that is going to be spent on this Conference would be better spent on housing, job creation, skills training and health."

Prof. Christiaan Barnard - Heart Transplant Pioneer

"I am not proud to be South African - for that matter I am not proud to be a human being. If God would look down on earth today, he would say that His biggest mistake was to create man, ‘because he has done nothing to improve this beautiful land I have given them, all he has done, is destroy it.’ If I can have a wish, I would wish that there were an international effort to reduce the number of people being born. I often ask myself the question; what was the point of doing all this work and working so hard for so many years, what have I really achieved? Very little. Very little."

Pic: Brenton Geach 

Felicia Mabuza-Suttle - South African TV Talk Show Host

"I say it loud, I’m an African and I’m proud. Yes, I am an African woman so proud of my roots and my heritage. I talk, sleep, dream and extol the praises of Africa in everything I do or say. There is something even more special about being an African woman. You tend to be a healer and reconciler, councillor and priest to all the children. This, I am reminded of daily by the young people who write to me asking for help and telling me I am their role model. They call me with the problems only a mother can bear to hear. So my message to all African women - black and white, is that we should not forget what our role in society is - to nurture, comfort, heal, council, minister and to rebuild our society."

Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris - Chief Rabbi of the Union of Orthodox Synagogues of South Africa

"The key to effective South African transformation is pronounced South Africanism, that whatever group we spring from, or belong to, we can aspire to an overall national identity. We all live within many circles of involvement and concern, but only when we feel part of the wider circle, which is our whole civil society, can we begin to do justice to the bonds which that allegiance should call forth from us. We can only be proud and positive citizens of South Africa when we feel a sense of belonging to the country as a whole."

Mrs Evita Bezuidenhout - Former South African Ambassador to the Independent Black homeland Republic of Bapetikosweti

"I am known as the most famous white woman in South Africa. This might be so. Many of the previously recognised famous white woman, liberals and democrats, all fought for democracy in South Africa. And when we eventually got democracy in South Africa? They emigrated to Australia and Canada and the USA. We have got a second change in spite of what we did to each other in the name of politics! Which nation in the world has got a second chance like we have? Not even the Jews! And as we know the Jews are the chosen people of the northern hemisphere. (We Afrikaners of course are the chosen people of the southern hemisphere.) Like black and white proved in South Africa, it is now time that Arabs and Jews live together like Christians! The future of South Africa is certain; it is just the past that is unpredictable."

“The future of South Africa is certain; it is just the past that is unpredictable.”

MRS EVITA BEZUIDENHOUT