As Hindu families throughout South Africa celebrate Deepavali today, I wish to extend my warmest wishes for a new year filled with hope, refreshing and opportunity. On behalf of the IFP, I welcome this time of festivity as a moment to focus on family and express appreciation for the many blessings of the year that has passed.

There have been challenges and disappointments for all South Africans over the past year. But across all cultures and all religions we have shared reasons to celebrate. I believe each one of us can look back and say that we have at some point been the beneficiaries of benevolence and human kindness.

These experiences draw us together and inspire us to become the givers of good gifts, just as we have been the recipients.

I therefore encourage all Hindu South Africans celebrating Diwali today to remember an act of kindness, and to show an act of kindness, so that in this New Year we may create greater happiness.

I offer my best wishes for a joyous Diwali.