Official opening ceremony of the ‘Nelson Mandela in Cape Town’ Legacy Exhibition

10 December 2021

Speech by Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis

This speech was delivered at the opening of the permanent Nelson Mandela Legacy Exhibition at the Cape Town City Hall.

Ladies and gentlemen, all of my City colleagues who have been so intimately involved with this project, welcome to our beautifully restored and renovated City Hall.

You are all truly and warmly welcome here this evening.

I am so sorry I’m not able to join you.

I was so looking forward to this event this evening, and am heart sore not to be able to join you. I have serious FOMO.

Prof Ndebele, I looked so forward to seeing you again after many years. I’m not sure you remember, but you once hosted a young SRC member for dinner at your grand Vice Chancellor’s lodgings at the University of Cape Town.

You were gracious, kind and wise then, and I cannot think of a more suitable head of the Foundation of the great man, our beloved Madiba.

This is also the perfect site for this exhibition, because it was of course here, just metres away on the balcony overlooking the Grand Parade that Madiba spoke the first words of HIS freedom, and set South Africa on the course of OUR freedom.

What an exemplary and singular leader we had in Nelson Mandela.

His endless capacity for compassion, his patience, and quiet strength anchored his being and his leadership of this country.

His vision still lives and we can reclaim it, despite the many blows that vision has taken from the vicissitudes of our politics over the last 15 years in particular.

Our clear sense of higher purpose in Cape Town is to show that the society we envisaged when that speech was made on this balcony here, is still possible and attainable. That our society can still overcome the pain of our past and move steadily towards, not further away, from a future of shared prosperity for all.

Here in Cape Town, we are committed to this, and will do everything in our ability to grow the economy faster to lift people out of poverty, to deliver dignified services, and with the humility to know that South Africa’s problems require dedication, respect and compassion.

This exhibition is a monument to the sacrifice of the past, and the hope and possibility of South Africa’s future.

So there is no more appropriate place to mark this occasion than at the birthplace of that vision.

With the installation of a permanent exhibition detailing Madiba’s legacy, those involved in the liberation struggle in Cape Town, the events leading up to his release, and the transition into democracy, I know this exhibition will become the attraction it deserves to be, and a reminder of what is possible through the boundless hope that an individual can live by.

And what a fitting home for this exhibition. We will continue to preserve this precious building and will do all we can to ensure that when the tourists come back, that this exhibition is top of their must-see list. 

I congratulate all involved in putting this together, and welcome you all most warmly here tonight. 

Thank you.

End

Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office