Your Excellency, My Dear Brother, President Boni Yayi;
Your Excellency, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe,
Honourable Speaker of the National Assembly,
Honourable Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP),
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers;
Leaders of political parties,
Excellencies Ambassadors of the Republics of South Africa and Benin;
Excellencies Ambassadors from the West African region,
Senior Officials;
Ladies and gentlemen;
I am truly delighted and honoured to welcome you, Your Excellency and your delegation on the occasion of your State Visit to South Africa.
Your presence in our country is indicative of the warm, solid and fraternal relations that exist between our two countries.
Your Excellency, allow me to use this occasion of your visit to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the people of Benin for their solidarity and support during our struggle against apartheid.
The solidarity of our brothers and sisters in the continent contributed immensely to our attainment of freedom and the ushering in of democracy in our country.
Your Excellency, this is a historic occasion for us because it is your first State Visit to South Africa, and we are happy that we have made a lot of progress.
The agreements signed today provide a good platform on which to structure cooperation.
South Africa and Benin face common socio-economic challenges – among others, job creation, unemployment, poverty, inequality, and underdevelopment.
Much work remains to be done and I am convinced that the discussions we held earlier today will take us a step higher in working together to resolve these.
Honourable guests,
We are further delighted you will interact with South African Business leaders during this State Visit.
I hope, Your Excellency that your meetings will be fruitful and that the session will contribute to ongoing efforts to boost trade and investment between South Africa and Benin.
Your Excellency and dear Brother,
Next week, South Africa will host the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) and the seventh meeting of the parties to the to the Kyoto Protocol.
COP17/CMP7 must be an African Conference of the Parties. By this we mean three things:
- The conference should advance African issues on sustainable development in general, and climate change in particular. It must have meaning to the poor who are mostly affected by changing weather patterns;
- Secondly, the conference must showcase Africa’s successes on sustainable development, including our green projects;
- Thirdly, it must strengthen international partnerships for Africa’s green initiatives, especially with respect to mobilizing the necessary means of implementation in the form of finance, technology, and capacity-building.
We are happy with the progress made in preparation for the COP17 but we know that in terms of substance, Durban is not going to be easy.
Reaching a consensus among 194 state parties is not going to be easy, given that some parties will naturally push the respective national interest above the global interest.
As the President of the conference, South Africa has the important responsibility of helping the parties to find each other. We are equal to the task, and will work with parties in a consultative manner as we have done during the preparatory phase.
As mandated by the Cancun Agreements, South Africa as incoming President undertook a number of informal consultations in order to further prepare Parties for Durban.
We are counting on the positive signals that Parties have sent out in these consultations, and remain optimistic that Durban will succeed.
Your Excellency,
May I take this opportunity once more to warmly welcome you and your delegation to our country. I thank you most sincerely for accepting my invitation to undertake this State Visit.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
May you kindly rise and join me in a toast to the good health and prosperity of His Excellency President Boni Yayi, and to the friendship and partnership between the peoples of the Republic of South Africa and the Republic of Benin.
To friendship!!
I thank you.
