Ramaphosa Praises #ImStaying Facebook Page, Encourages Unity, Reconciliation in South Africa

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA

I WAS recently sent a photo that featured on the popular #ImStaying Facebook thread. Two women are seated side by side at a bus stop somewhere in Cape Town. One is white, elderly and frail, and rests her head on the shoulder of the younger black woman.
 
This simple image, of these two women sitting there with their hands locked tightly, resonated deeply with me as we approach Reconciliation Day on 16 December.
 
It brought to mind the powerful words of Steve Bantu Biko that captured our aspirations for a new country: “In time we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift – a more human face.”
 
Such a scene, of kindness and compassion, and of two people simply being human, would have been unthinkable in South Africa just over three decades ago.
 
Under that most insidious