When we were elected in April 1994, we were given a mandate - to draft a new Constitution for our country. Today, as chairperson and on behalf of all 490 members of the Constitutional Assembly, I am able to report that we are delivering on that mandate.
Today marks the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one.
It's the end of two years of work by the Constitutional Assembly, and the end of a much longer phase of negotiation and transition. Now, we can all take our rightful place in a South Africa free from the tyranny of one group over another. As we celebrate a new beginning, it is fitting to look back and consider how far we have come. At Vereeniging in 1902, a treaty between the British and the Boers effectively disenfranchised the black majority. And here, at Sharpeville, tragic events revealed starkly how far removed we were from a human rights culture.