Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is Ms Nandi Mandela—businesswoman, speaker at the 2014 Edinburgh international culture summit and granddaughter of Nelson Mandela.
Honourable Presiding Officer, honourable members of Parliament, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honour and privilege to stand before you today to lead time for reflection.
A few years ago, I was having lunch with my grandfather at our country home in Qunu and was half-listening to the conversation when he said something that struck a chord. He said that young people do not have time for old people and that, because of that, they lose out on things that are important in life. The next thing that he said was that, if we are to build a developing country, such as South Africa, we need to give ourselves time to spend with the elderly and with young people.
I thought to myself, “I was just asking you to tell me about your health, and now you are telling me about your goat that got stuck in a fence. Clearly, that does not add value to my life.” That is what I thought at the time.
What he had to say was that we need to learn to be patient and to listen. Before that statement, even though I am a person who likes to engage with people in different walks of life, including the elderly, I would not sit and listen to someone who is long-winded about anything that they have to tell me.
The moral of the story is that, in today’s world, we have little time to listen and reflect on all the things that we do in life. The most important lesson is that the elderly have contributed to their family life, to the life of the country and to the general world at large. Secondly, when you pause and listen, you show that you care.
This parable helps to bridge the gap between the old and the young, between the most sophisticated and those who live a simple life, between the fast-paced world and the slow, rural environment. It is similar to the parable of the sheep in Matthew, chapter 18, verses 12 and 13. The owner rejoiced after finding one lost sheep, even though the 99 did not wander.
Like the lost sheep, we have somehow lost our way. We have little respect for people who are different from us. We are so attuned to our own way of doing things. It is my way or the highway.
As we go back to our fast-paced world, we need to take a moment to pause and listen and make sure that we do our bit to bridge the gap.