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SOUTH AFRICAN EMBASSY IN ROME: NEWSLETTER

OR Tambo Centenary – The Legacy and the

Life

On 1 December 2017, the Deputy Minister of justice and Constitutional Development, Mr John Jeffery, and

the Deputy Mayor of Reggio Emilia, Ms Serena Foracchia, spoke at a commemorative event, hosted by the

Municipality of the City of Reggio Emilia, to mark the Centenary Celebrations of the life and legacy of the

late OR Tambo.

In a moving address, the Deputy Minister noted that the Government of South Africa has declared 2017 as

the Year of OR Tambo. South Africa celebrates the Centenary of his birth, in a year which is dedicated to

unity in action by all South Africans, to strive to move South Africa forward, together. The Deputy Minister

quoted Father Trevor Huddlestone, who, writing about Oliver Tambo, in ES Reddy’s book called “Apartheid

and the International Community”, said: “...for it is quite certain that when the full story of the liberation

struggle in South Africa comes to be written the name of Oliver Tambo will be joined with that of his friend

and partner, Nelson Mandela, as deserving of the highest honour. It will never be forgotten, for without Oli-

ver Tambo, it is true to say, the African National Congress could not have survived the years and years of

repression and exile as it has done. … In those thirty years of exile for himself and his family he achieved

recognition from the international community by the sheer integrity and intelligence of his commitment to

liberation itself. But it was a colossal and immensely costly process.”

Providing a brief overview of the life of OR Tambo, the Deputy Minister highlighted the fact that, sadly, he

had passed away just a year before South Africa was to become a democracy – a year before he was to

see his dream become a reality. Deputy Minister Jeffery added that the life of OR Tambo embodies the

struggle for democracy, equality and freedom. In quoting Nelson Mandela, speaking at the funeral of OR

Tambo, in May 1993 to the effect that: “Oliver lived because he had surrendered his very being to the peo-

ple. He lived because his very being embodied love, an idea, a hope, an aspiration, a vision” the Deputy

Minister said that perhaps the question we must ask ourselves today, both in South Africa, but also across

the world, is whether we are succeeding in living up to these ideals, to these hopes and aspirations that OR

Tambo had? He probed further by asking “To what degree have we succeeded in building a non-racial and

democratic society, in South Africa and in the rest of the world?”

Deputy Minister Jeffery also said that the best way we can honour the legacy of OR Tambo is to continue to

promote and defend human rights, democracy and equality in all parts of the world, to end poverty and de-

vote ourselves to building a world that is free from inequality and free from discrimination and prejudice.

Address by the Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, the Hon JH Jeffery, MP

at the OR Tambo Centenary, held at the Red Hall, Municipality of Reggio Emilia, Rome,
1 December 2017 ( DOWNLOAD PDF )

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