ABSTRACT
Thabo Mbeki, second post-democracy president of South Africa, in a speech on the occasion of the adoption of the ‘Republic of South Africa Constitution Bill’ on 8 May 1996, defined the identity ‘South African’ inclusively: the San, the Khoikhoi, the Nguni peoples, the Sotho and other black groups, the immigrants from India who arrived in the nineteenth century and the two waves of whites, Dutch and British, were all mentioned. Implicit in his definition is the condition that the descendants of these people, despite the diversity of their origins, will accept this country as their permanent home, acknowledging that it is the focus of their primary political loyalty, and recognizing the obligation to work for the material, moral and cultural welfare of the whole South African community.
