On behalf of the Department of Home Affairs, I would like to wish our former President, Mr Mandela a very happy birthday. 

We are proud of you today. 

Your release from prison began the most remarkable political transition any country has ever known.  

You chose reconciliation over revenge. Your leadership and your moral courage defined our era of liberation. You taught us “the freedom of forgiveness and the power of humility”. You are an inspiration to the world.  

You live in our hearts and in our minds as we celebrate your birthday and go about spending 67 minutes on a good cause. 

Today is a very special Mandela Day.  

Today we reach another milestone in the process of restoring dignity to South African citizens.  

Today we begin replacing the ID book with the Smart ID card.  

We hand Smart ID cards - symbolic of our liberation and development as a nation - to President Jacob Zuma, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, former President Thabo Mbeki, Former President FW de Klerk, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Mrs Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Mrs Sophie de Bruyn, the Rivonia trailists Mr Andrew Mlangeni, Mr Dennis Goldberg, Mr Ahmed Kathrada and former Speaker Frene Ginwala. They are representatives of what we have termed the "Mandela Generation" and those who laid the foundations for democracy. We also provide the smart ID card to several senior citizens who symbolise those who fought for our freedom. Remarkably one of guests is over 103 years old. 

In a few weeks times we will gather here again to mark the anniversary of the 1956 Women’s March against the oppressive pass laws.  

Madiba, Walter Sisulu and Chief Albert Luthuli personally burnt passes in defiance of pass laws that stripped the majority of South Africans of their identity and dignity. 

Hundreds of campaigns over many decades ensured that we find ourselves today in a South Africa that belongs to all who live in it. 

The ID smart card is a way of affirming citizenship and using digital technology to protect the integrity of our identity as South Africans. 

It was here, at the Union Buildings on May 10 1994, that Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as President of South Africa. 

He issued the following call that inspires us to this day, and I quote: “”Out of the experience of and extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud. Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity's belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.” End quote. 

Our presence here today is one modest but important response to Madiba’s call. 

I thank you.