KwaZulu-Natal Premier Willies Mchunu has offered his greetings and warm wishes as we celebrate the holy festival of Diwali.

May the light that Deepavali brings shine in all of us and may we use this light to bring happiness and contentment to the lives of all the people of KwaZulu-Natal.

Times like these are dedicated to reflect on what has gone before and reconnect with the light which lies within us. During this Diwali season we need to pray for the transformation of our society into one nation united in diversity.

We need to increase our consciousness of the ways in which light can triumph over darkness. Our hope is that in this spirit of looking to the light, we should find reconciliation where there has been division and hurt.

Bound together as we are in the new South Africa, we need to remember that we are a Rainbow Nation as espoused by former President Nelson Mandela who dedicated his entire to the cause of Nation Building and unity of our people across all racial lines.

This government is determined to promote unity because we believe that this is the only way of creating a winning province economically and socially. We have stated previously that unity can be achieved if we celebrate together national days such as Umkhosi Wokweshwama, Battle of Isandlwana, Reconciliation Day, Diwali, Rosh Hashan, Eid, Heritage Day and many other days of importance in our lives.

As we celebrate Diwali, we want to emphasize the point that as government we are committed to promoting the culture of peaceful coexistence, political tolerance, fighting racism and xenophobia and promoting equality, non-sexism, non-racialism and access to justice.

We want to salute His Majesty, Isilo Samabandla for hosting Diwali celebrations in the palace on the 6th October 2017. We also express our appreciation to Ishwar Ramlutchman who, in line with the teachings of His Majesty, organised the celebrations and has been promoting social cohesion.

This must also be the daily task of all leaders in our society. We are also heartened by the fact that organizations such as South African Hindu Maha Sabha is at the forefront of the promotion of the peaceful co-existence. We are committed as government to working with the leadership of South African Hindu Maha Sabha in order to drive socio-economic development in our province.

As part of social cohesion, as government we have ongoing interaction with leaders of different communities such as religious leaders and traditional leaders in an efforts to promote unity.

Source: Government of South Africa