2nd February 1990
Mr Speaker, Members of Parliament.
THE GENERAL ELECTIONS on September the 6th, 1989, placed our country irrevocably on the road of drastic change. Underlying this is the growing realisation by an increasing number of South Africans that only a negotiated understanding among the representative leaders of the entire population is able to ensure lasting peace.
Former South African State President September 1989 to April 1994
F.W De Klerk served as the seventh and last Sate President of Apartheid South Africa
The alternative is growing violence, tension and conflict. That is unacceptable and in nobody’s interest. The well-being of all in this country is linked inextricably to the ability of the leaders to come to terms with one another on a new dispensation. No-one can escape this simple truth.
On its part, the Government will accord the process of negotiation the highest priority. The aim is a totally new and just constitutional dispensation in which every inhabitant will enjoy equal rights, treatment and opportunity in every sphere of endeavor – constitutional, social and economic.
I hope that this new Parliament will play a constructive part in both the prelude to negotiations and the negotiating process itself. I wish to ask all of you who identify yourselves with the broad aim of a new South Africa, and that is the overwhelming majority:
Ø Let us put petty politics aside when we discuss the future during this Session.
Ø Help us build a broad consensus about the fundamentals of a new, realistic and democratic dispensation.
Ø Let us work together on a plan that will rid our country of suspicion and steer it away from domination and radicalism of any kind.
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