On National Heritage Day in Bohlokong today a diverse group of black, white and coloured youths from Bohlokong, Bethlehem and Bakenpark have come together on a dusty patch of bare ground to play a friendly soccer match in a display of unity in our rainbow nation.
Many politicians who are meant to set an example to our youth regarding nation building and reconciliation abuse platforms afforded them by virtue of their positions to mobilise support around divisive issues in our society.
Racial and xenophobic populism based on isolation, hatred, violence and intolerance must never be allowed to become entrenched in the psyche of young people.
Intolerance and disrespect for others in society is also the reason why murder, violence and abuse against woman and children, much of which is perpetrated by young men, has become a national crisis.
This small group of rural teenagers have joined hands in humble surroundings to reject our country’s historical heritage of division, discrimination and intolerance and build their own future that is based on the core constitutional principle that “South Africa belongs to all who live in it united in our diversity”.
While acknowledging our nation’s divided and discriminatory past, our young people must themselves take ownership of their future. The seeds of tolerance, reconciliation and nation building that our young people plant today, will become their heritage that offers shade to our young people tomorrow.
This unique and friendly soccer match was organised by local DA structures in Maluti Constituency in the Free State to prove author John Carlin correct. In his book, “Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation”, he correctly writes: “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, the power to unite people that little else has”. In today’s soccer match not a single team, but all the participants and spectators, are winners.
The DA has a vision of a prosperous, united and reconciled South Africa in which our youth of today will all have equal opportunities to prosper tomorrow, irrespective of their current adversity or advantages.
This is the heritage that our country deserves, and this is the heritage that we celebrate and continue to strive for, united in our diversity.