SOUTH AFRICA: MANDELA'S FAREWELL SPEECH TO PARLIAMENT
To the extent that I have been able to take our country forward to this new era,
it is because I am the product of the people of the world
who have cherished a vision of a better life for all people, everyone.
They insisted, in a spirit of self-sacrifice,
that that vision should be realized in South Africa too.
They gave us hope because we knew, by their solidarity,
that our ideas could not be silenced since they were the ideas of humanity.
I am the product of Africa and her long and cherished dream of a rebirth
that can now be realized so that all of her children may play in the sun.
I will count myself as among the agents of our society,
as one of the rural population,
as one concerned for the children and youth of our country,
and as a citizen of the world committed, as long as I have the strength,
to work for a better life for all people everywhere.
And as I have always done, I will do what I can,
within the discipline of the broad movement for peace and democracy to which I belong.
You have ensured that this Parliament is no rubber stamp in the hands of government,
and you have given back to the extent that we have still to reconcile and heal our nation,
to the extent that the consequences of apartheid still permeate our society
and define the lives of millions of South Africans as lives of deprivation.
Those challenges are unchanged.