Cape Town — South Africa's cultural diversity is its collective strength, a strength that could benefit the entire world, says Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordaan.

In a special joint sitting of Parliament on Thursday, Dr Jordaan paid homage to Oliver Reginald who led the African National Congress from 1969, until his death at the dawn of democracy in South Africa.

Dr Jordaan referred to the words of Mr Tambo, spoken on Radio Freedom on 8 January 1979, which heralded a vision which is now taking root in South Africa.

Mr Tambo said then: "Let us in South Africa learn to stop being Bantus, Coloureds, Indians and whites. Let us be what we are, Africans in Africa.

"Let those who are committed racists, who came to this continent determined to keep Africans in chains, to be perpetual masters over blacks - let them persist in their role as foreigners on African soil."

Dr Jordaan said this "profoundly anti-racist ethos was rooted as much in his politics as in his deeply held Christian values."

Underscoring the foresight of Mr Tambo, Dr Jordan cited the notion of cultural diversity as defined by a group of independent experts set up by the director general of UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation).

Under their definition of cultural diversity, its "the manifold ways in which the cultures of social groups and societies find expression".

As such, cultural diversity is South Africa's collective strength, and which would "benefit the entire world" and one in which the cultural heritage of all South Africans is recognised and affirmed.

As it is, South Africa's cultural heritage is drawn from three continents, "and we, on this side of the house, readily accept this outcome as the verdict of history," the minister said.

"Humanism, that affirms the dignity and worth of all people, based on our human capacity to reason, is the connecting thread among these traditions," Minister Jordaan said.

Going back to Mr Tambo's own history, the minister described how the struggle icon established the first African legal practice with Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg in December 1952.

This was after Mr Tambo gave up teaching mathematics and science to study law in 1948, but it ended in 1956 when Mr Tambo was arrested with 155 others on charges of High Treason on 6 December 1956.

Soon afterwards, Mr Tambo was instructed to travel abroad and establish an external mission for the ANC and to mobilise international support for the movement's struggle for freedom.

He also led the ANC from exile and as well as in South Africa, spending the following decades building up a powerful and progressive movement that was eventually to create a democracy that is now shared and enjoyed by all South Africa's people.

Following the speech in honour of Mr Tambo, a special ceremony was held in his honour at the Robben Island Museum on Thursday.