MR MANDELA'S FIRST SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT

Set 1: JOINT SITTINGS OF BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT (HANSARD): 24 May 1994 to 7 November 1996.
3 vols. (xvii, 148 columns.; xiii, 502 columns; xvi, 256 columns).

Set 2: DEBATES OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL ASSEMBLY (HANSARD): 24 May to 14 November 1994.
3 vols. ( xvii, 294 columns; xi, 364 columns; xviii, 516 columns).

Cloth with gilding.

Both sets contain lists of Cabinet Ministers, Members of the Senate and of the National Assembly; indexes to the speeches and subjects, as well as the debates.

In the JOINT SITTINGS... at 4.15 pm on 24 May 1994, Madam Speaker took the Chair and read a message from the President calling for a Joint Sitting of the National Assembly. Mr Mandela then rose and delivered what must be one of his most important and moving messages: "the time will come when our nation will honour the memory of all the sons, the daughters, the mothers, the fathers, the youth and the children, who, by their thoughts and deeds gave us the right to assert with pride that we are South Africans, that we are Africans and that we are citizens of the world." (Set 1, volume 1, column 3). He then quoted in full the poem "The child is not dead" by Ingrid Jonker, whom he called "an Afrikaner and an African". Mr Mandela then invited those present to help him and his government "define for ourselves what we want to make of our shared destiny" and indicated that he wished to establish a social order "in which the freedom of the individual will truly mean the freedom of the individual" (column 4). He ended with the famous admonishment" "Let us get down to work" (column 16).

THE DEBATES...contains the record of the meeting of the Constitutional Assembly which saw Mr Cyril Ramaphosa elected Chairperson and Mr C. Wessels Deputy Chairman. In his acceptance speech, Mr Ramaphosa referred to the Constitutional Assembly as being "the culmination of many bitter struggles waged by millions of our people to install democratic rule in our country" (Set 2, Volume 1, column 7). He added "It must also enhance national unity and reconciliation and help us all to achieve lasting peace in our country" (column 7).

These six volumes represent the birth of the new, free South Africa and as such form an invaluable printed historical record of a crucial process that was watched by the world, in many cases copied, and also envied.