[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 48 (Thursday, April 28, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        SOUTH AFRICAN ELECTIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Oregon [Ms. Furse] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FURSE. Mr. Speaker, I speak today with a great deal of emotion 
about a subject that I have some unique experience with. I want to 
speak about what I believe is the most amazing transfer of power in 
history. The election in South Africa has been the change from 
apartheid to democracy through the process of consensus rather than 
revolution.
  Mr. Speaker, I was once a South African citizen, and I remember only 
too well what apartheid meant. It meant that oppression and fear ruled 
that beautiful land, not the rule of law. I had that experience, Mr. 
Speaker, and I was very fortunate.
  When I grew up in South Africa as a teenager, I was able to protest 
against apartheid with an organization called the Black Sash, an 
organization of women who decided that they would stand against the 
horrors of apartheid. And throughout the decades, Black Sash has 
continued its strong, nonviolent, unrelenting vigilance for peace and 
justice for all South Africans. I am very proud to have been able to be 
one small thread in the broad, all-inclusive banner of justice which 
today waves freely across the entire country that is South Africa.
  What happened in South Africa these last 3 days is a tribute to the 
human spirit, the spirit which never loses sight of the vision of 
freedom.
  For 26 years Nelson Mandela was imprisoned; he was treated brutally, 
but he never, never lost his faith in nonviolence. Mr. Mandela was not 
alone; millions of South Africans suffered, and yet they also held to 
the great principle of nonviolence.

                              {time}  1750

  South Africa has been a land of horror to the majority of its people, 
a land of violence to the body, to the mind, to the spirit, a land 
where no security existed, no security for the family, for decency, for 
education and, indeed, for life itself.
  Now violence may come in South Africa from those who are fearful that 
those benefits that they have enjoyed will now be only enjoyed by those 
who work for it, not just those who are born with it, where people are 
judged finally in South Africa not by their color but by their 
contribution.
  But it is essential to realize that for decades there has been 
unrelenting violence toward those of African descent or those who 
opposed apartheid, and yet today, Mr. Speaker, we have this great 
opportunity, for the very first time in so many years, to say that the 
people of South Africa are joined together in this great experiment.
  Mr. Speaker, I think we are most fortunate to have lived in this 
year, to have seen this great opportunity for democracy and, Mr. 
Speaker, I want to say that tonight my heart is very, very full of joy 
for this great, great experience.

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