While South Africans marched for President Jacob Zuma to fall in different parts of the country Zuma appeared calm‚ smiling and chatty as he came to Nelson Mandela Bay to give a Reconciliation Day address at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Missionvale Campus on Wednesday.

Zuma arrived at the NMMU campus to an electric crowd. Eastern Cape Premier Phumulo Masualle welcomed the president to Nelson Mandela Bay and said he was truly grateful that Zuma had chosen this city to give his address as it was home to many legends.

Masualle expressed his confidence in Zuma and the collective ANC leadership saying it would continue to lead South Africa forward.

Zuma said that he had come to the right city for this event‚ given the heroes who lay buried in Nelson Mandela Bay. He reflected on the past‚ saying the nation had been through a system of rule that had traumatised millions of people‚ causing untold pain.

“Our message since 1994 is that we are one people‚ united‚ we should undertake the pain of the past and move to a common future”‚ Zuma said.

The president said the government had chosen December 16 as a day of national reconciliation because it symbolised the divisions of the country’s past.

 “We have done a lot to promote reconciliation in our country since 1994. We must admit we still have many challenges which still undermine reconciliation. Poverty‚ unemployment‚ inequality.

“True reconciliation is not just forgiving and forgetting the past‚ it is much deeper than that.”