Programme Director
Esteemed Members of the Freedom Park Council
Senior Officials
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen:

It gives me great pleasure to welcome all of you this evening to this historic occasion. This is indeed a distinguished gathering tasked with the vital responsibility of providing strategic direction to one of our foremost cultural institutions in the heritage sector.

To begin with, I would like to acknowledge and thank the Board of Trustees who have worked tirelessly to ensure that the vision of the Freedom Park Legacy Project does indeed become a reality.

I am pleased to announce that, through your efforts, a post 1994 heritage destination which encapsulates and celebrates South Africa’s collective history, culture and heritage has over the years become translated into an impressive and dynamic building complex. I have been assured that every aspect of construction will be completed shortly.

This would not have been possible without the leadership and stewardship of the Freedom Park Board of Trustees and Executive. I am aware that this has not been an easy task, made more difficult by the untimely death of the following Trustees: Mr Govan Mbeki, Mr Joe Modise, Mr Revel Fox and Ms Faith Gaza.

Despite the many challenges you have faced, you have succeeded - and for that I commend you on your sterling work and unwavering commitment to the successful development of Freedom Park.

In this year we have reached another milestone in the brief history of this new initiative. The declaration of Freedom Park on the 1st of April 2009 as a Cultural Institution in terms of the Cultural Institutions Act is a testament of your success.

It also heralds a new chapter in the evolution of this ambitious project. The appointment of the council by my predecessor, Dr Pallo Jordan, signals the passing on of the baton.

Therefore today I congratulate you on your appointment as council members of Freedom Park.

Ensuring that Freedom Park takes its rightful place

Your task over the next 3 years of your term is not only to build on the successes which have been achieved. It is also to ensure that Freedom Park takes its rightful place in South Africa’s national consciousness, becomes part of our national identity and captures the imagination of the world.

 

What should Freedom Park mean to all?

The thinking that must happen now during your term and beyond the next three years has to be geared towards answering the question: What position does Freedom Park want to stake out for itself in the national, continental and international heritage landscape?  In more simple terms, what does and should our Freedom mean to those who know very little about us or for those of a new generation who were born after the achievement of democracy.

 

Putting building blocks in place

The further challenge is to identify exactly what are the building blocks that must be put into place now to enable Freedom Park to make a unique contribution to the sector and to carve its own niche in the three year period of your term of office.

In other words, there should also be a conversation at a corporate and business strategy level about how Freedom Park’s strategic focus will evolve until the end of your term.

What success factors will be necessary and how will they be put in place during your term?

Freedom Park as part of the writing of history

The conservation of the heritage your institution protects is critical as is the complexity of the fabric through which South Africa’s layered history weaves. Yet every history tells a story (and sometimes even many stories) and your task is to share that history with the rest of us.

Yet as we mature as a democracy even the memories that we have of history change. Yet the truth of that history need to be told even as we learn more about our past as the times change.

Each new council member will add his or her own nuance to the telling of this history and together your ideas will further position Freedom Park, as a new institution and as a living heritage site in ways that impact on our national memory and national consciousness.

The mission statement of Freedom Park

As new council members, I am sure you would already have familiarized yourself with the mission of Freedom Park which captures the full complexity of your work.

Freedom Park:

“Strives to be a pioneering and empowering heritage destination in order to mobilize for reconciliation and nation building in our country; to reflect upon our past, improving our present and building our future as a united nation; to contribute continentally and internationally to the formation of better human understanding among nations and peoples.”

In the wake of the global economic recession which we are experiencing and the resultant national debates about rising unemployment, income disparities and the need for more equitable, sustainable and inclusive growth strategies issues of social cohesion and nation building are increasingly becoming important and should be fore-grounded.

Indeed the call by government for all South Africans to work together to build South Africa requires that we escalate our efforts to harness cohesion and unity within our society.

In this regard your task as council members for one of the key strategic institutions in the heritage sector is not an easy one.

I would therefore suggest that in undertaking this onerous task you begin a necessary dialogue about what should be fore-grounded in our national memory, and why this should be the case.

At the same time we also need to examine what makes this initiative different from other similar programmes in the country and on the continent.

Freedom Park and investing in culture

We need to look at the possibilities of the Freedom Park also being an institution that can also bring about further investment in culture and can contribute to the sustainable development of arts, culture and heritage in our country.

You may also wish to look at the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) and other related national programmes to see how Freedom Park can benefit from this initiative and how those opportunities can be leveraged.

2010 Legacy Projects

As South Africans we have also just completed the hosting of the Confederations Cup and look forward to the FIFA World Cup in 2010.

You will also have to examine in which ways Freedom Park can leave its footprint as part of a 2010 Legacy Project.

The role of the Department of Arts and Culture

In closing, as new council members my Department will take you through an induction process with the executive management at your institution over the next few weeks.

I am told that the specific outcomes of this process will be:

• and a performance management system with mechanisms linking the performance of council and the executive management your institution with the strategic planning and implementation process during the council’s term.

With these systems in place my role of monitoring, evaluation and the provision of political direction and oversight becomes much more streamlined.

I am confident that the range of stakeholders, skills and expertise represented in this room, will position Freedom Park in the best possible ways for good governance, for deepening the transformation of the heritage sector and for supporting national development imperatives.

In conclusion, I am reminded of the words of Ben Okri, the novellist, who says:

We are all still learning how to be free. Freedom is the beginning of the greatest possibilities of the human genius. It is not the goal.”

Let this be a lesson to us all as we develop South Africa’s Freedom Park.

Let our involvement in this project be a learning curve for all of us – since every day that passes presents us with a new opportunity to extend the boundaries of freedom for all our people – and for us ourselves also to be free.

I thank you.

 

 

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