0:00:16.453,0:00:17.702
This weekend,

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South Africans all over the world

0:00:20.913,0:00:24.154
are celebrating twenty years [br]of our democracy.

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Excuse-me if I get a little emotional,

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because I'm celebrating with you.

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I'm not back home, [br]with my friends and my team,

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but I'm here with you today,

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and I hope all of you will celebrate

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our twenty years of democracy.

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(Applause)

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When I was a teenager, [br]twenty years ago,

0:00:48.029,0:00:50.541
my sister and I, on this very day,

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were preparing, very busily, [br]a lot of food

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for the thousands of people that were [br]going to be casting their vote

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for the first time [br]in South Africa's history,

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the first time hundreds [br]and thousands of South Africans

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were going to vote.

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And 67% of South Africa's [br]voting population

0:01:08.518,0:01:11.756
voted for Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela,

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fondly known to us as Madiba.

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I met Madiba soon after he became [br]president of South Africa.

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I met him at Chief Albert Lutuli's house, [br]in Groutville.

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I lived close by.

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And we talked about travel.

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We talked about his favourite food,

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which is beans, by the way.

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And we talked about me [br]wanting to be a designer,

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and he told me about him studying law.

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He said to me that it was [br]very important for him to study law

0:01:40.125,0:01:41.766
and to know everything about it,

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so he could change it for South Africa.

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And so, as I grew older,

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I started to reflect on this time [br]with Mandela,

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because he also told me -- which I didn't [br]quite understand at the time,

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because I thought we were a free nation,

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back then, in 1994 --

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but he reminded me,

0:01:59.821,0:02:02.712
he said that a lot of work [br]still needed to be done.

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And he said, "You wanted to be a designer?

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We need designers.

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We need so many people [br]to do so much more."

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Because he was saying to me [br]that our democracy

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was only a part of the journey to freedom.

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I didn't understand it then.

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And so, recently, I've been [br]reflecting a lot about this,

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about what he meant.

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And I started to think about [br]what I do with my life,

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and how I've been...

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maybe, what sacrifices have I been making?

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You know, Madiba made so many sacrifices,

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alongside so many other people.

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And I wondered, what was I doing?

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And so, when he died, last December,

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I started to think [br]about everything in my life:

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my personal relationships, my work.

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And I often would say to myself,

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even in my darkest hour:

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"What would Madiba do?"

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You know, I come from a family [br]that is a bit of a mixed bag.

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We lived in tropical KwaZulu-Natal,

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which is the province [br]on the North East coast,

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North East of South Africa.

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I come from a small town,

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and my mom is Persian,

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and her mom is from Rangoon, in Burma.

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And she's got flaming red hair,

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a freckled face and amber eyes.

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And my dad, he's South African [br]of Indian descent.

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His family has been in South Africa [br]for four generations.

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In our home, we spoke Gujarathi, [br]and English, and isiZulu,

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and we recited poetry in Arabic and Urdu.

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So, we had a very colourful life.

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Our home was very colourful, [br]it was loud, full of debates,

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and singing, and prayer.

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And it was a happy childhood.

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But outside, I knew that we were living [br]a time of apartheid,

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which was dark and gloomy.

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It was a very ugly time in South Africa.

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And I became aware, as a young girl, [br]about apartheid,

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because we were living [br]in the Southern tip of Africa,

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but I had to live in an Indians-only area,

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and I had to go to an Indians-only school.

0:04:04.293,0:04:08.884
And every day, every moment, [br]we had to classify ourselves,

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we had to fill out forms,

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always justifying who we were.

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And we had these forms that were

0:04:14.277,0:04:15.934
"Engli..." Excuse-me,

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"White", "Black", "Indian" and "Coloured".

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And, sometimes, there would be "Other".

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And I always ticked the "Other".

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My dad was very frustrated.

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And my dad loved to fish, you know.

0:04:26.251,0:04:27.442
He was quite a fisherman,

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and so, we spent [br]a lot of time on the beach.

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We lived close to the Indian Ocean.

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And I used to join my dad.

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I don't think I was of any use,

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but I went with him anyway.

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On this one occasion, [br]we got kicked off the beach.

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Not very kindly, I might add.

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And I asked my dad, I said, "Why are we [br]getting kicked off the beach?"

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And he said, "Zahira, we are Indian.

0:04:47.983,0:04:50.000
We're not allowed to be on this beach."

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I said, "But dad, I learned at school

0:04:51.776,0:04:53.918
that this is the Indian Ocean.

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I thought you owned the beach!" (Laughter)

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And so, as a young girl,

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I started to notice [br]that something wasn't right.

0:05:01.358,0:05:02.872
And I didn't feel nice.

0:05:02.872,0:05:05.862
I didn't feel nice [br]about what was happening.

0:05:05.862,0:05:07.682
I realized that what was in my home

0:05:07.682,0:05:10.646
was colourful, it was expansive.

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What was outside was gloomy

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and it was diminishing.

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It was the dull times of apartheid.

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And my family, [br]like most South African people,

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lived a life of awkward indignity.

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We accepted very quietly [br]our circumstances,

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and it seemed also [br]that the darker you got,

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the worst you were treated.

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We lived on the periphery of society,

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with very little access [br]to economic opportunity.

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And so, as I grew older,

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I became very socially [br]and politically conscious.

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I learned, while I was a teenager,

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that Mandela was incarcerated,

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and I learned why.

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I learned that Chief Albert Luthuli --

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who was our family friend

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and who had lived in our family home

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for several months [br]when he was under house arrest --

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when he was awarded [br]the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960,

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he had to be given [br]"honorary white membership",

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or "honorary white status",

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just to travel to receive this prize.

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I also learned that my uncle, [br]Professor Kader Asmal,

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was in exile for 37 years,

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and he was living in Ireland.

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And he was in exile [br]because he was one of the founders

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of the anti-apartheid movement in Europe.

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So, I also learned [br]that our phones were tapped.

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Our house was visited [br]by National Party officials

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and my family was interrogated constantly

0:06:34.780,0:06:38.352
about my uncle's activities [br]while in exile.

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So, the government thought at the time

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that my uncle should have been [br]locked up with Mandela.

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In those days, a group of black people

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was considered an illegal protest,

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instead of a social gathering and a party.

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There was the Group Areas Act --

0:06:52.278,0:06:55.015
yeah, we had an act every so many years,

0:06:55.015,0:06:57.159
to restrain us and restrict us.

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There was the Group Areas Act,

0:06:58.607,0:07:02.748
where we were forced to live [br]with people of our own race.

0:07:02.748,0:07:05.789
Some of us were even forcibly [br]removed from our homes

0:07:05.789,0:07:07.572
and made to live in squalor,

0:07:07.572,0:07:10.329
on the periphery of the cities.

0:07:10.329,0:07:11.952
There was the Bantu Education Act,

0:07:11.952,0:07:13.716
that limited people's education,

0:07:13.716,0:07:15.922
black people's education,

0:07:15.922,0:07:19.050
hence perpetuating their persecution.

0:07:19.050,0:07:20.612
There was the Land Act,

0:07:20.612,0:07:24.762
that made it impossible for us [br]to own land in South Africa.

0:07:24.762,0:07:27.667
And my favourite was the Immorality Act,

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which made it illegal [br]to love someone of another race.

0:07:33.170,0:07:36.962
Students all over the country [br]in South Africa,

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in the 1970's, were being killed

0:07:39.710,0:07:41.869
by the South African Defence Force.

0:07:41.869,0:07:45.738
They were "protesting": [br]they didn't want to study Afrikaans.

0:07:45.738,0:07:48.707
Black people all over the country [br]were being killed.

0:07:48.707,0:07:51.176
They were "protesting":

0:07:51.176,0:07:53.339
they didn't want to use passbooks

0:07:53.339,0:07:56.827
that limited their movement [br]around the country.

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We all wanted to be free.

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But I realized, at that time,

0:08:01.322,0:08:04.256
that no one was free:

0:08:04.256,0:08:08.018
not the victims, nor the persecutors.

0:08:08.018,0:08:10.910
We were slaves of colonial masters;

0:08:10.910,0:08:13.857
our cultures, considered [br]unsophisticated.

0:08:13.857,0:08:16.571
We had to use back entrances [br]to restaurants,

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if we were allowed in the first place.

0:08:19.430,0:08:24.103
We were forbidden [br]to visit many parts of South Africa.

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Can you imagine?

0:08:25.495,0:08:27.960
All this space in a beautiful country,

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and we couldn't access it.

0:08:30.470,0:08:34.529
I protested because I believed [br]there was better.

0:08:34.529,0:08:36.192
I wished to be free,

0:08:36.192,0:08:38.470
not only to move around the country

0:08:38.470,0:08:40.185
and see beautiful things,

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but also to be free to express myself,

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and to just be me.

0:08:44.765,0:08:46.652
I wanted my colour, my culture,

0:08:46.652,0:08:50.783
my heritage, my language [br]to matter like anyone else's.

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Or not to matter, if it didn't matter.

0:08:54.902,0:08:56.953
I didn't want to live in fear.

0:08:56.953,0:08:59.348
I remember too [br]that we were called South Africans,

0:08:59.348,0:09:01.048
but we didn't know what that meant.

0:09:01.048,0:09:03.951
We were so harshly [br]excluded from activities,

0:09:03.951,0:09:06.179
important activities in South Africa --

0:09:06.179,0:09:08.329
"How can we be called South African?"

0:09:08.329,0:09:10.856
It just wasn't possible.

0:09:10.856,0:09:13.259
So, this time in South Africa's history

0:09:13.259,0:09:16.720
was so painful for so many people

0:09:16.720,0:09:21.092
that some can't speak about it even today.

0:09:21.092,0:09:23.422
So, I wondered then, twenty years on,

0:09:23.422,0:09:25.863
"What does freedom mean to us?"

0:09:25.863,0:09:29.876
I feel free, I feel free now,

0:09:29.876,0:09:32.812
and I don't take my freedom for granted.

0:09:32.812,0:09:34.878
I know what it felt like before,

0:09:34.878,0:09:36.994
and I never want to feel it again.

0:09:36.994,0:09:39.596
I don't even wish anyone else [br]to feel what I felt,

0:09:39.596,0:09:43.124
as a young girl, living in South Africa.

0:09:43.124,0:09:45.293
And so, I engaged with my freedom

0:09:45.293,0:09:48.980
every single day [br]and every moment of my life.

0:09:48.980,0:09:52.729
And so, my friends and my colleagues [br]call me an activist.

0:09:52.729,0:09:54.359
Some of them say to me,

0:09:54.359,0:09:56.924
"Your conversations about apartheid

0:09:56.924,0:10:00.169
make me feel a little uncomfortable."

0:10:00.169,0:10:01.753
And I say to this,

0:10:01.753,0:10:04.558
"If you're feeling [br]a little uncomfortable now,

0:10:04.558,0:10:08.668
imagine what it felt like in reality."

0:10:08.668,0:10:10.176
Some of them say to me,

0:10:10.176,0:10:13.742
"Get over apartheid, Zahira. It's over."

0:10:13.742,0:10:15.428
And I say, "Apartheid isn't over,

0:10:15.428,0:10:17.479
if so many South Africans are still living

0:10:17.479,0:10:19.625
with these harsh realities."

0:10:19.625,0:10:22.380
And then, some of my friends [br]and colleagues say to me,

0:10:22.380,0:10:25.321
"Zahira, with your work and what you do,[br]why do you bother?

0:10:25.321,0:10:27.620
Do something else more fun."

0:10:28.920,0:10:32.597
And I say: "Madiba reminded us

0:10:32.597,0:10:35.809
that the hard work is not done yet.

0:10:35.809,0:10:40.300
And besides, imagine if Madiba [br]had to say, 'Why bother?'

0:10:40.300,0:10:43.699
Where would that [br]leave South Africa today?"

0:10:43.699,0:10:47.346
So, I wonder, in countries [br]like South Africa and Brazil,

0:10:47.346,0:10:49.942
what does freedom mean to us?

0:10:49.942,0:10:52.012
Both Brazil and South Africa

0:10:52.012,0:10:54.690
have the worst GD coefficient [br]in the world.

0:10:54.690,0:10:57.632
In social economic terms, [br]that means that our countries,

0:10:57.632,0:11:00.106
our societies are the most divided.

0:11:00.106,0:11:04.079
So divided, in fact, [br]that they probably will never meet.

0:11:04.079,0:11:07.464
In Brazil, and allow me to say,

0:11:07.464,0:11:10.007
some of your buildings [br]have two separate entrances,

0:11:10.007,0:11:11.772
(Portuguese) "Service" and "Social".

0:11:11.772,0:11:15.274
In fact, most of the buildings [br]I went to in São Paulo have this!

0:11:15.274,0:11:17.131
This is unacceptable!

0:11:17.131,0:11:19.756
This is two separate entrances for people!

0:11:19.756,0:11:22.684
This reminds me [br]of my childhood in apartheid!

0:11:22.684,0:11:24.756
Dangerously close.

0:11:24.756,0:11:28.156
And the designers in this room: [br]change that!

0:11:28.156,0:11:32.842
(Applause)

0:11:34.397,0:11:37.845
Too many South Africans [br]are living bellow the red line.

0:11:37.845,0:11:40.759
Too many South Africans [br]are living without education.

0:11:40.759,0:11:43.960
And too many South Africans [br]are living without dignity.

0:11:43.960,0:11:45.680
That is unacceptable.

0:11:45.680,0:11:48.030
So, with thirty years [br]of democracy in Brazil

0:11:48.030,0:11:50.294
and twenty years [br]of democracy in South Africa,

0:11:50.294,0:11:52.633
what does it actually mean for us?

0:11:53.453,0:11:55.351
The challenges facing our democracy

0:11:55.351,0:11:57.935
should be seen as opportunities,

0:11:57.935,0:11:59.751
not -- excuse-me --

0:11:59.751,0:12:01.680
and processes of engagement,

0:12:01.680,0:12:03.733
and not problems to be solved.

0:12:03.733,0:12:06.580
People are not problems.

0:12:06.580,0:12:10.645
Through my work, [br]I discovered in South Africa

0:12:10.645,0:12:15.063
things that have equally warmed my heart

0:12:15.063,0:12:17.983
and things that have made [br]my hair stand on end.

0:12:17.983,0:12:20.820
I have seen people live with such dire --

0:12:20.820,0:12:23.612
in such dire conditions and circumstances,

0:12:23.612,0:12:25.936
that it made me so sad

0:12:25.936,0:12:28.418
that even my own circumstances as a child

0:12:28.418,0:12:30.157
paled in comparison.

0:12:30.157,0:12:32.604
Yet, these people -- [br]the thing that warmed my heart

0:12:32.604,0:12:34.673
was that they had so much hope

0:12:34.673,0:12:36.798
that there was going to be a better life.

0:12:36.798,0:12:40.006
If not for them, for their children [br]and grandchildren.

0:12:40.006,0:12:44.535
They still have the hope [br]that Madiba gave them

0:12:44.535,0:12:46.114
all those years ago:

0:12:46.114,0:12:48.781
that, through our freedom [br]and through our democracy,

0:12:48.781,0:12:51.366
a better life will come to them.

0:12:52.086,0:12:54.189
And so, I realize at these moments,

0:12:54.189,0:12:55.898
when meeting these beautiful people

0:12:55.898,0:12:58.638
that share their lives with me [br]so generously --

0:12:58.638,0:13:02.449
yet they have absolutely nothing --

0:13:03.189,0:13:06.790
I remember and recall [br]Madiba's words to me

0:13:06.790,0:13:12.034
about the journey [br]through freedom and emancipation

0:13:12.034,0:13:14.851
only started then, with our democracy.

0:13:14.851,0:13:18.569
So, freedom has to be [br]negotiated, constantly.

0:13:18.569,0:13:22.020
And freedom has to be [br]demonstrated, always.

0:13:22.020,0:13:25.967
But most of all, [br]freedom needs to be shared.

0:13:25.967,0:13:28.677
For those of us with political freedom,

0:13:28.677,0:13:31.954
make certain [br]that your governance policies

0:13:31.954,0:13:35.033
have the interest of all people at heart.

0:13:35.033,0:13:37.425
For those of us with economic freedom,

0:13:37.425,0:13:40.464
make certain that all people have homes,

0:13:40.464,0:13:43.273
that all people have access [br]to quality services

0:13:43.273,0:13:46.605
and have access to education and learning.

0:13:46.605,0:13:49.087
For those of us with social freedom,

0:13:49.087,0:13:52.670
make certain you free yourself [br]from hatred,

0:13:52.670,0:13:55.489
anger and jealousy.

0:13:55.489,0:13:58.338
Madiba reminds us that love

0:13:58.338,0:14:02.380
comes more naturally to the human heart.

0:14:02.380,0:14:04.228
Freedom isn't a competition,

0:14:04.228,0:14:07.639
and nor is it a race [br]with a finishing line.

0:14:07.639,0:14:09.701
Our freedom should be like a relay:

0:14:09.701,0:14:12.500
we should pass it on to others.

0:14:12.500,0:14:13.841
So, I want all of us today,

0:14:13.841,0:14:17.732
while celebrating South Africa's [br]twenty years of democracy,

0:14:17.732,0:14:19.535
that we should consider our lives,

0:14:19.535,0:14:22.116
we should consider our work.

0:14:22.116,0:14:25.234
Be sure to engage [br]with your freedom, actively.

0:14:25.234,0:14:27.764
Be that activist!

0:14:27.764,0:14:31.955
Apply your craft [br]for the emancipation of others,

0:14:31.955,0:14:34.578
whether you're a doctor, [br]whether you're an engineer

0:14:34.578,0:14:36.153
a designer or an architect,

0:14:36.153,0:14:39.886
especially if you're a political leader.

0:14:40.766,0:14:42.906
Each day in our lives,

0:14:42.906,0:14:46.633
when we have moments of uncertainty,

0:14:46.633,0:14:49.095
or if we're looking for inspiration,

0:14:49.095,0:14:51.043
we should think to ourselves:

0:14:51.043,0:14:52.745
"What would Madiba do?"

0:14:52.745,0:14:54.031
Thank you.

0:14:54.031,0:14:57.430
(Applause)