Speech delivered by Nkosi ZMD Mandela, MP

At the Bokaap Youth Street Boeka

On Friday 8th June 2018

Honourable Elders, mothers and fathers;

Respected Youth;

Brothers and sisters in Islam;

Comrades and friends of the Bokaap.

I bring you greetings of this year in which we celebrate 100 years of the life and legacy of
President Nelson Rolihlala Mandela. Madiba loved the Bokaap. He loved the people of the
Bokaap and loved what the Bokaap symbolizes for our nation. I am sure he would have loved to
be with us tonight as we delight in breaking our fast and in celebrating the Palestinian struggle;
a cause very close to his heart.

Tonight you are making history and Ramadan 1439 will be remembered as another great
moment and milestone in the life of this community. The moment when you as youth have
come to the fore and shown the world what you are capable of doing. This collective breaking of
the day’s fasting or boeka as we know it here in the Cape is not only an act of sharing with each
other is also symbolic of the love we have for each other.

For this reason, I am overjoyed to be in your midst this evening and to see so many youth
united in action for a good cause. This spells good for the community of Bokaap, Cape Town,
Western Cape and South Africa because you are the future.

The Bokaap had a special place in Madiba’s heart just as it has a special place in our hearts.
This is because of its unique history and the place it occupies in our long walk to freedom. I
have no doubt that you are all very familiar with this history. It is a history you can all be proud
of. It is a history of defiance and struggle against slavery, oppression and injustice. It is also a
history of victory and triumph in which we celebrate that which makes us truly unique.

Allow me to acknowledge, applaud and thank the leadership of Bokaap Youth for organizing this
gathering of so many young people. Tonight, we celebrate your vision and determination to

1
make a difference in this community. By rallying young people together you have done us all
proud.

Thirty years ago if we gathered so many people together on the streets of Bokaap our gathering
would have constituted an illegal gathering. We would have been harassed by riot police and
sprayed with teargas and water cannons. We would have been sjambokked and chased like
dogs. We would have been shot at with rubber-bullets if not buckshot and live ammunition. I
remind you of this not to tell you about our painful past but to tell you what our Palestinian
brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, young and old are experiencing every day in
Occupied Palestine and the cruelty meted out to them on a daily basis by the brutal Apartheid
Israel regime.

Young Leaders;

On the 15th May 2018 our brothers and sisters in Palestine commemorated 70 years of the
Nakba, the Great Catastrophe. On that day in 1948 Muslim, Christian and Orthodox Jews fought
side by side against Zionist occupation a struggle that we pursue as a collective to this day.

The 15th May also reminded us of the many Palestinian villages that were massacred and wiped
out; homes and farms that were either destroyed or illegally occupied. It reminded us of the
thousands of Palestinians that have been held captive in jail, tortured, maimed and experiencing
the worst forms of abuse imaginable. It reminded us of the brave 16 year old Ahad Tamimi and
other children being held in Apartheid Israel prisons in violation of International law. Most of all it
reminded us of the six million Palestinians scattered all over the world as refugees denied the
right of return to the country of their birth.

Like you are gathered here tonight in Bokaap, Palestinians young and old decided to have a
peaceful Right of Return March. The response from Apartheid Israel was cruel and brutal. In
total 111 Palestinians were martyred and more than 2700 were injured with as many as 32
people permanently losing their limbs through amputation.

Young leaders;

This gathering tonight sends a strong message of hope to our suffering Palestinian brothers and
sisters that one day they too shall enjoy the fruits of their brave and courageous struggle.
Tonight, they are in our hearts and in our prayers. We see their suffering and their tears and we

2
feel their pain and hardship. That is what we have endured for 350 years of colonial occupation
here in Bokaap and all over South Africa and indeed the African continent.

Tonight, we say for all the world to hear that Palestine will be free in our lifetime. We say to our
youth in Palestine that we stand by you and your just struggle; your struggle is our struggle.
Tonight, the Bokaap Youth sends a strong message to the Youth of Occupied Palestine that we
shall also join you and celebrate the joys of Ramadan on the streets with you as we have done
here in the Bokaap.

We shall join you on the streets of Gaza, we shall join you on the streets of Ramallah, we shall
join you on the streets of Hebron Al Khalil, we shall join you on the streets of Bethlehem, we
shall join you in the celebrations in the grand courtyard of Masjid Al Aqsa, we shall join you in
the eternal capital of Jerusalem, Al Quds and we shall join you in a free Palestine.

Youth of Bokaap;

Today, is the last Friday of Ramadan a day in which we join together with millions all over the
wolrd in an act of international solidarity with the Palestinian struggle. We remind ourselves of
President Nelson Mandela’s promise that “our freedom shall remain incomplete without the
freedom of the Palestinian people”. The question therefore is what is to be done? What can we
do as Bokaap Youth and what can the Youth of South Africa do to support the Palestinian
struggle?

Firstly, we must stand together and act united as you have done here on the streets of BoKaap
this Ramadan. We must be united in our diversity just as the many colourful homes of the
Bokaap makes one community. We must unite in our action for a free Palestine.

Secondly, we must ensure that the spirit of sacrifice and struggle that we have nurtured in our
youth and our community during Ramadan motivates us to continue this programme of action
beyond Ramadan and throughout the year. Let us conscientise our youth about the struggle for
a free Palestine. The Bokaap Youth can make us proud by making this area a no-go zone for all
Apartheid Israel products; Let us make this community the strongest voice for the BDS; the
Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment against Apartheid Israel.

Thirdly, let us fly a Palestinian flag on every street of Bokaap if not on every home. When the
world comes here to see the historic Slave Quarter, let us make them aware and tell them that

3
our Palestinian brothers and sisters are still being subjected to occupation, brutality and
genocide by Apartheid Israel.

Fourthly, the Bokaap Youth must join us in calling for the immediate and unconditional
implementation of the ANCs 54th National General Conference resolution to downgrade
diplomatic relations. I want you to join me in repeating my call for the expulsion of the Israeli
Ambassador from South Africa and cutting all ties with Apartheid Israel. We call for a complete
cut in diplomatic, trade and cultural ties with Apartheid Israel. We have no business supporting
Apartheid Israel. Next week we must rally support and call on our leaders at the BRICS Summit
to place an arms embargo on Apartheid Israel.

Fifthly, we say to Mmusi Maimane and all in the DA who continue to support Apartheid Israel,
we will not support you. Today, they want to fire the Mayor of Cape Town because she didn’t
want to accept the R600 million bribe from Apartheid Israeli companies to install water
desalination plants. Our freedom is not for sale and the Freedom of the Palestinian people is not
for sale !

Young leaders and Bokaap Youth;

Last week President Ramaphosa was asked to declare BoKaap a National Heritage Site to
protect this historic area. I support this call for many reasons; It was here in the Quarry on High
Level road that Qadi Abdu Salaam Tuan Guru led the first slave rebellion; It was here that the
first school for slaves was started; it was here that the first mosque in South Africa was built. We
must protect this heritage from gentrification and erasing the memory of our struggle and where
we have come from. The cobbled stones on the streets of Bokaap have many stories to tell.
They tell the same stories as the stones thrown by Palestinian youths in Gaza and the West
Bank. They are a symbol of our resistance and the promise that we can and will build a new
future.

The Bokaap has a proud history and is home to many legends. You are the legends of
tomorrow and therefore Bokaap Youth must sit with the likes of Faghmie Solomons and learn
about how sport united our people in struggle. How sport motivated us and kept us together as
a community. Just yesterday we saw the power of protest in sport when Lionel Messi and the
Argentinian Soccer Team cancelled their soccer match against Apartheid Israel. Sport is an
important tool that young people can use in our efforts to support the Palestinian struggle. Omar
Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement reminded us of this when he said: “Playing with an

4
apartheid state is a form of complicity, magnified by Israel's recent horrific massacre in Gaza
against unarmed protesters demanding their basic freedom, dignity and U.N.-stipulated refugee
right of return,” (close quote).

Let us rally the youth of South Africa and the African continent in this Nelson Mandela
Centennial Year in support of the struggle for Palestine. Madiba called this the “greatest moral
issue of our time.” Our youth have a long and proud tradition of struggle for justice, freedom and
liberation. Let us say for all the world to hear, that the legacy lives on and our dream of a free
Palestine shall never die!

With these few words I wish you a blessed Ramadan. Make the most of the remaining days and
next Friday let us celebrate a blessed Eid in solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters
and all the oppressed and suffering masses all over the world.

Viva BoKaap Youth Viva!

Viva Palestine Viva!

Down with Apartheid Israel Down!