The nation's bridges still need building

THIS week, on Reconciliation Day, 40 000 Afrikaners gathered at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria to commemorate Geloftedag — the Day of the Vow.

- RUDI BUYS

At the centre of the monument lies a cenotaph with the words, Ons vir Jou, Suid-Afrika - We for Thee, South Africa. On December 16 every year, at midday, a beam of sunlight falls through a hole in the dome above onto the words, calling onlookers to commemorate the Vow.

At the same time this week, President Ramaphosa addressed all South Africans from the Ncome Museum in Kwazulu-Natal. The museum is the heritage site to remember the original battle between Zulu and Afrikaner and its place in and meaning for South-Africans today - to shine a light on the project of reconciliation to reunite a nation in the face of a traumatic and divided past.

The museum, however, is not the only centre of remembrance that marks the site. Right across from the museum, on the other bank of the Ncome river, or Bloedrivier, stands a half-moon of 64 ossewaens in bronze — a laager as heritage site unveiled in 1972. The monument remembers the Voortrekkers’ vow on December 16, 1838, to serve God if he would give their hundreds-strong Boer-trekkers the victory over the thousands-strong impis of the AmaZulu King, Dingaan.