29 August 2007
The Prime Minister has unveiled a statue of Nelson Mandela in a ceremony in Parliament Square.
Accompanied by London Mayor Ken Livingstone, the PM revealed the three metre sculpture to thousands of onlookers in the company of Nelson Mandela and his wife, Graca Machel. Mr Brown said it would act as a "beacon of hope" and show the world that "no injustice can last forever".
Read the full speech
Today let me on behalf of the people of our country welcome you to Britain.
The man who will be remembered forever as the leader who ended apartheid.
The man whom no prison cell, no intimidation, no violence, no show trial and no threat of execution could ever silence.
A man whose belief in the future was so powerful that not even 27 years behind bars and barbed wire could destroy his dream and his demand - that - by fighting apartheid from his prison cell - millions today could be free.
And from this day forward, this statue will stand here, in sight of this ancient forum of democracy, to commemorate and celebrate for the ages triumph in the greatest of causes and the most inspiring and greatest leader of our generation - and one of the most courageous and best-loved men of all time.
He is the leader who became the liberator, who always chose reconciliation over revenge, who when he left his country’s prisons to become his country’s president led South Africa away from dictatorship and a multi-racial democracy was born.
And when people look back on this generation they will say of this great man wherever there was oppression, wherever there was poverty, wherever there was injustice, wherever there was inequality, there Mandela was and is fighting for justice.
And when the history books of the liberation struggles are finally written, they will say of these last decades, this was the age of Mandela.
And this statue lovingly planned two decades ago by Donald Woods and Richard Attenborough is - for us today - and for future generations much more than just a monument.
For only a street away from where tens of thousands over the years demonstrated for the release of Nelson Mandela, this statue is a beacon of hope that sends round the world the most powerful of messages that "no injustice can last for ever".
That suffering in the cause of freedom will not be and never be in vain.
But no matter how long the night of oppression the morning of liberty will break through and we can and will overcome.
And there is nothing we the peoples of the world cannot achieve together.
And let us salute today not just the greatness of Nelson Mandela but the goodness of the man too, of a life where as the poet said, "he rose above the greatest without arrogance and he stooped to help the weakest without condescension".
Always respectful of everyone, subservient to no one.
And such is his humanity that even not Mandela - having climbed one mountain, and triumphed over the evil of apartheid - is at the age of 89 climbing another, fighting the evil of global poverty.
And let us welcome today with him - and thank for her leadership - his courageous and inspirational wife Graca Machel whose path-breaking achievements in fighting the poverty of children are recognised in the award announced today as dame Graca Machel.
Both these great leaders telling us that by our common endeavours we can abolish poverty and illiteracy and become the first generation in history to ensure every child in every continent has the right to education.
That by our shared resolution we can be the first generation to eradicate the deadliest diseases of malaria, diphtheria, polio, TB and then together attack the scourge of HIV aids and next week inspired by Nelson Mandela we will announce our plans to do so.
And that if what seemed the impassable pinnacle of ending apartheid can be scaled in the last century, then in this century we can make poverty history and "make the world anew" and so now I invite Ken, Wendy and Richard to unveil this statue with me across from Winston Churchill, who led us in the defeat of fascism, and near to Abraham Lincoln, the great emancipator will stand Nelson Mandela, the great liberator of people. May Nelson Mandela’s story and his statue, summon us and future generations to stand with him and seek a world worthy of what is best in our common humanity. President Mandela, you will be here with us always.
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