honour of His Excellency, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC), Joseph Kabila and Madame Kabila, on the occasion of the State Banquet,
Tuynhuys
14 June 2007
Your Excellency, President Joseph Kabila and First Lady of the DRC,
Your Excellencies, Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
The Honourable Presiding Officers of our national Parliament,
The Honourable Premier of the Western Cape province,
Your Excellencies, Ambassadors and High Commissioners,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen:
We are truly delighted that Your Excellency, your wife and your delegation
have honoured us with your important visit. On behalf of the people and
government of South Africa, I am privileged to welcome Your Excellency and all
our friends from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), representing both the
public and private sectors. We would like to take advantage of your presence
among us, Your Excellency, to convey our warmest greetings to the wonderful
people of the DRC, who have shown immense determination to extricate themselves
from more than 40 years of autocracy, wars and the unimaginable looting of the
rich resources with which your country is blessed, and thereby crafted a path
towards a future that inspires many of us that the regeneration of Africa is
not a dream but a living reality.
It is the fervent wish and a united abiding prayer of all of Africa that the
DRC and any country on the continent for that matter should never again be
visited by the misfortunes that have defined the lives of the Congolese people
for such a long time. We are convinced that what the Congolese people have
achieved, leading to the advent of democracy, will be sustainable and lead to
national reconciliation, permanent stability, increasing prosperity and a
better life for all the people of the DRC.
Allow me Your Excellency, on behalf of the government and fellow South
Africans officially to congratulate the Congolese people, under your
leadership, for the great victories they have achieved, including the
successful 2006 Presidential and parliamentary elections and the subsequent
installation of the new government in 2007, with its new programme of
action.
Your Excellency, there are a number of similarities between South Africa and
the DRC. Our countries consist of societies in transition from turbulent
histories. The DRC is at a critical crossroads, similar to that we reached
following the historic April 1994 elections, which marked the demise of
apartheid and the installation of a democratically elected government. We
believe, however, that transitional challenges such as those faced by our two
countries are not insurmountable.
As we meet this evening, Your Excellency, no one better enjoins us, albeit
posthumously, to pursue our common vision than your own Patrice Lumumba,
himself a truly devout freedom fighter, a great son of Africa and an esteemed
Member of the Order of the Companions of OR Tambo. In one of his famous poems
entitled The Dawn in the Heart of Africa, he said:
The dawn is here, my brother! Dawn! Look in our faces,
A new morning breaks in our old Africa.
Ours alone will now be the land, the water, mighty rivers
Poor African surrendered for a thousand years.
Hard torches of the sun will shine for us again
They'll dry the tears in eyes and spittle on your face.
The moment when you break the chains, the heavy fetters,
The evil cruel times will go never to come again.
A free and gallant Congo will rise from black soil,
A free and gallant Congo-black blossom from black seed!
More than 40 years after Lumumba told us about 'a new morning that breaks in
our old Africa', and the 'hard torches of the sun that will shine for us again
and dry the tears in eyes and spittle on your face, the moment when you break
the chains, the heavy fetters,' the DRC has risen again, like a phoenix from
the ashes.
Ten years ago, when we addressed the Unites States (US) Corporate Council on
Africa in Virginia, United States of America (USA), we said: "As Africans, we
have a vision, hope and a prayer about what will come in the end. We see a new
Zaire, perhaps with a new name, a Zaire which shall be democratic, peaceful,
prosperous, a defender of human rights, an exemplar of what the new Africa
should be, occupying the geographic space that it does, at the heart of our
Africa.
Much is now written about Zaire. Daily events assume proportions of
permanence. The confounding ebbs and flows of social conflict are seen as
defining moments.
And yet, as Africans, we would like to believe that we know that, at the
end, what all of us will see, thanks to the wisdom of the people of Zaire
themselves, is not the heart of darkness, but the light of a new African star."
Today the new African star is a reality!
Your Excellency, our governments launched the South Africa or DRC
Bi-National Commission (BNC) in August 2004, as a forum for the exchange of
ideas, formalising agreements and serving as an instrument of bilateral
co-operation. Since then, our governments have signed well over 20 agreements.
We commit ourselves to do everything we can to ensure the implementation of
these agreements.
Your Excellency, South Africa will continue to do what it can to act in
partnership with Your Excellency, the government and people of the DRC as you
respond to the urgent challenges of development. We will always be ready to
work with you in such important national challenges as national reconciliation
and post conflict reconstruction and development covering such critical areas
as security sector reform (SSR), institutional capacity building, and economic
development.
We have a duty, among other things, to strengthen our economic relations by
enhancing co-operation among our business people and increase trade and
investment between our countries, as well as ensuring effective implementation
of current and future New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad)
projects, as well as the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
programmes. We must work together to improve people-to-people contacts,
including through cultural, scientific and educational exchange programmes as
well as encouraging two-way tourism.
In thanking you for visiting us, Your Excellency, I would like to say that
am certain that your visit to our country will help us to accelerate our
advance towards the achievement of these objectives, which will further cement
the warm relations that exist between our countries and peoples. We thank you
most sincerely for what you have done and are doing to realise this objective,
in the interest of both our peoples.
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen: please rise and join me in a toast
to the good health of His Excellency, President Joseph Kabila and the First
Lady, and to the everlasting friendship, co-operation and partnership between
the peoples of the DRC and South Africa. To friendship!
Thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
14 June 2007
Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za)
