If the ANC does to you what the apartheid government did to you, then you must do to the ANC what you did to the apartheid government.

The history of struggle is rich with stories of heroes and heroines - some of them leaders, some of them followers, all of them deserve to be remembered.

Out of the experience of extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud.

We have introduced equity into our life, including a uniform educational system. We have also introduced a Bill of Rights, which is not just a piece of paper, but a living document because we have created structures that are totally independent of the government and that can overrule the government, even the president.

I am fundamentally an optimist.

We have laid the foundation for a better life. Things that were unimaginable a few years ago have become everyday reality. I belong to the generation of leaders for whom the achievement of democracy was the defining challenge.

We now undertake that we cannot rest while millions of our people suffer the pain and indignity of poverty in all its forms.