Not even a week after the late former President Nelson Mandela’s state funeral, details of a study emerged where about nine out of ten young people apparently think it would be an honourable thing to do, to honour Madiba’s legacy with a public holiday.
I question the timing of the survey as I feel they could have waited, instead of doing the survey, as a family and nation bid their last farewell to the father of our nation.
A lot of surveys are done and it’s quite easy to do one, but I can’t help to question them. The results in reality do not reflect the view of all the people in that age group.
For some time now we’ve been having the debate on should South Africa not have lesser public holidays, why thus suggest another one.
My remarks and questions on this are: We a secular democracy, but does our public holidays reflect this. In South Africa there is more than seven different kind of religion, so even if one is to argue that Christians are in the majority, are we not discriminating against another person based on his/her religion?
If you say we need to honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela, I find it disturbing that especially young people who are fit and able to help grow our economy and create a better future for themselves, would even suggest another public holiday. In my view we could do away with one or two, maybe even more, public holidays. Madiba stood for inclusivity, but does our public holidays reflect inclusivity and one don’t even need to consult the calendar to know the answer is no.
If I could briefly go to the public holidays:
Only the Christian religion is included in the twelve existing public holidays, excluding important religious days for the Islam-, Jewish-, Bahá’í- and other religions. Days on our calendar are Freedom Day (when South Africans of all races could make their mark for our democracy), Youth Day (to mark the 1967 student uprising) and Women’s Day (in honour of the thousands of mothers and daughters who protested to the Union Buildings). In honour of human rights and to commemorate the Sharpville massacre we have Human Rights Day, to pay homage to the working class there is Workers Day and in December we have Reconciliation Day.
Other days on our calendar are New Years day, Family day as an extension to Good Friday, Christmas and as an extension to Christmas celebrations there is Day of Goodwill. To celebrate the different heritages of our country we also have heritage day.
Apart from the twelve days, the Public Holidays Act (Act No 36 of 1994) determines that whenever any public holiday falls on a Sunday, the Monday following will be a public holiday.
From time to time the President of the Republic is generous and we get once-off Public Holidays like with a General election and on:
• 31 December 1999 and 2 (and 3) January 2000,
• 2 May 2008
• 27 December 2008
Madiba and many others fought for us to enjoy a democracy with rights and responsibilities, is it fair towards them to suggest we should have a public holiday day to honour Madiba?
I decided to do my own survey and asked 23 young people between 18 and 25 if they think we should in honour of Nelson Mandela have a public holiday? – Now all of them reside in the Western Cape but are from different towns and backgrounds.
Two said it would be nice but would make the youth lazy, while the rest all said we don’t need another public holiday. We either have too many or could rename one is what four of those I asked said.
We know Madiba devoted 67 years towards building a better South Africa for all.
All around us; we see the need in our communities; we see unemployment, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, corruption, violence, etc… We should start by making every second of every minute during each hour of every day of the month in the year to make a difference by changing these factors in society.
We should tell others:
• About the dangers of drugs
• Using protection when having sex and the consequences if you don’t (being HIV, teenage pregnancy and sexual transmitted diseases and infections)
• Educate one to create employment opportunities and or to assist those seeking.
• Be the eyes and ears of the long arm of the law, by going to the police and tell them if you see a crime.
• Not to make yourself guilty on corruption or violence
• Never to judge
We should honour Madiba by living our lives with integrity, dignity and values – having a dream, believing in that dream and striving towards it.
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| A statute of former President Nelson Mandela was unveiled by President Jacob G. Zuma on Reconciliation Day (16 December 2013) at the Union Buildings. This took place a day after Madiba was laid to rest during a State Funeral and the unveiling which started 18 months prior coincided with the centenary of the Union Buildings. |
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