Last night, July 14, the SAWIP Congressional Forum took place on Capitol Hill. It was an amazing night. We as South Africans,in a tightly packed room, had been given the opportunity to share our stories with people from all over the world. I believe that our stories was a pristene representation of the different backgrounds we come from. There is one thing that I received from the speeches of my fellow SAWIPers, the Ambassadors and Congressmen who spoke on the occasion: HOPE. Hope for that nation South Africa. Hope that our nation has the possibility of becoming a great one. And I am thankful for that.

These are the words of the speech I delivered at the Forum. May they be of meaning for anyone who wish to read them:

 
Good evening ladies and gentleman. I thank you for your presence here tonight and am humbled to stand before you as an ambassador of South Africa. Even though I have not been to all the corners of the earth, I will not easily be convinced that there is a country on earth more beautiful than the one I represent. I stand before you not only as an ambassador of South Africa but also of the ethnic group I am from: the Afrikaners. I wish to, briefly, share with you my story of South Africa.
 
My name is Petrus van Niekerk. I am an Afrikaner South African citizen. I am a descendant of the people group who, not so long ago, were the architects and implementers of the most hostile socio-political system of racial segregation and subjugation called Apartheid.
 
It is significant to note that the largest progression of positive change towards a democratic new and united South Africa stemmed from the student uprisings of the 1970’s and 1980’s. It goes to show that the transformative power of a youth, united against the violation of basic human rights should never be underestimated.
 
One in 20 South Africans are white Afrikaners. Some Afrikaans-speaking South Africans have rejected the name ‘Afrikaners’, because of its negative connotations of racial and religious intolerance in the past. This is saddening, I believe, because great power for reconciling society arise when we acknowledge our identity and use it in ways for positive change. God made me an Afrikaner for good purposes, and I will embrace that. Since 1994 two thousand white farmers have been murdered in thousands of farms attacks bringing the murder rate of white farmers to four times that of the general South African population. It is clear that horrific trends like these qualify South Africa as still a very broken nation.
 
A nation severely wounded takes longer than fifteen years to be healed. The institution of democracy in South Africa is slowly providing the infrastructure for this process of healing to take place. Yet the wounds of the past have given birth to many challenges for the future. Our country is gripped by the AIDS pandemic and a third of the population lives on less than $2 a day. Racial hatred is not an uncommon phenomenon and crime is rampant. We are a nation at war with social injustice and lawlessness.
 
As the future leaders of South Africa and the greater continent of Africa we are to become the solution to these problems and the inspiration of our collaborators to act on these challenges.
 
I want to share a powerful story with you.  An experience of fresh reconciliation that took place in my life about two months ago. I met a fellow youth leader and SAWIP participant, Ayanda Gladile. Before the SAWIP program had started Ayanda had never been in friendship with a white person. Especially not an Afrikaner such as myself. As we came to know each other better through fellowship and sharing, a brotherhood was born. And this brotherhood has consequences for ethnic reconciliation within South African civil society. I have been released from fearing that which I did not know. Today, with a spirit of peace, I can reach out to the community Ayanda represents and he can reach out to mine. I have come to know that without Ayanda’s story being part of mine, Petrus van Niekerk can never be a true Afrikaner. For that name translated means ‘African’.  And we have now become African brothers.
 
The South African Washington Internship program is providing fruitful soil for the growing of leaders who stand firm in belief that leadership is synonymous with servanthood.  The opportunity that we have is a great one. We are chosen to be innovators of a culture where similarities are embraced and differences celebrated. To nurture a society which despises lawlessness and takes delight in justice.
 
My prayer for all South Africans is that we will refuse to be prisoners of our past. Rather that we will march ahead, in harmonious African song as pioneers of a prosperous future for our nation. Progress and change are words often heard these days. But the question is: where are we progressing towards? What will we be known for by future generations?
 
Let us march ahead in brotherly love with the wisdom of  knowing that the walls dividing us are built only by fear. The fear of not knowing what will happen when we reach out to one another. It is within our capacity to be reconciled to our fellow human beings.  Peace always conquers when fear is overpowered by love. This is the leadership we ought to admire and the way I urge my fellow leaders to follow.

I sincerely thank you

May God bless you