“Death is something inevitable. When a person has done what he or she considers to be their duty to people and country, they can rest in peace”. Nelson Mandela.
ACTSA remembers the recognition Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II gave to South African and British anti-apartheid leaders and activists at key points in her 70 year reign. This included granting refugee status to Oliver Tambo and his family in the 1960’s, awarding Bishop Trevor Huddleston the honour of KCMG, awarding Nelson Mandela the Order of Merit in 1995, and an OBE to Mike Terry for his dedicated service in leading the Anti-Apartheid Movement from 1976-1994.
We share the nation’s loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, an ordinary young woman called to leadership in a year when Nelson Mandela was criminally charged for seeking the vote in the country of his birth. He said ‘a vote without food, shelter and health care would be to create the appearance of equality while actual inequality is entrenched’. Her Majesty saw many changes in her lifetime, not least the rise of constitutional democracy in former colonies. Nelson Mandela led the people of South Africa in establishing their own such democracy after centuries of oppression. However, the rise of vast inequalities resulting from colonialism remain challenges which both Madiba and Queen Elizabeth have left us – all of us – to overcome, together. As Madiba wrote ‘We dare not linger’.