delivers a speech during the occasion to mark the celebrations of Chile's 196th
Independence Day Anniversary, Tshwane
18 September 2006
Your Excellency, Mr Claudio Herrera, the Ambassador of Chile, your other
Excellencies in attendance our Chilean friends, distinguished guests, ladies
and gentlemen
It is a great honour to be invited to the celebration of the Chilean
Independence Day. The history of both Chile and South Africa teaches us to
cherish the ideals of freedom and to embrace sovereignty as an end-state in any
country's quest for self-determination. On this day we need to pay homage to
the pioneers of the struggle in both countries who often were prepared to lay
down their lives as on ultimate.
Sacrifice to attain national pride and dignity for their compatriots and
future generations. As one of the youngest countries to be admitted into a
community of free nations, South Africa looks up to established democracies
like Chile to learn to treasure its political heritage. Since 1994, South
Africa has extended hand of friendship to the world, always expressing
willingness and readiness to cooperate and join the battle against poverty,
underdevelopment, aggression and any form of oppression. We thank the people of
Chile for reaching out. The relationship has yielded a number of bilateral
engagements between the two countries.
In testimony to this maturing relationship, the President of South Africa,
Mr Thabo Mbeki, has visited Chile twice in less than 18 months, his last visit
being a very special one because, I am informed, he was the only President of a
region from outside Latin America who was present on 11 March 2006 during the
occasion to mark the inauguration of President Michelle Bachelet, the first
woman ever to be democratically elected President of the Republic of
Chile.
President Mbeki's passion to promote the cause of women is well-known, because
the empowerment of women is the beginning of a real effort to address poverty
and under-development.
South Africa and Chile can do a lot together towards poverty alleviation and
social development as evidenced by no less than 10 missions undertaken between
these two countries in the past year alone. About 15 women from the South
African Women in Development, accompanied by Mrs Zanele Mbeki are going to
visit Chile from 20 to 25 September 2006, among others, to learn about good
practices in the social network that Chile has established as part of
grassroots development and alleviating poverty. The other area of co-operation
is on the creation of human skills for effective service delivery to the
people.
In this regard Chile has offered to assist South Africa with a development
programme on skills acquisition, in areas of good governance, industrial
business, education and health management systems. As part of a twinning
arrangement, the two provinces of South Africa, Mpumalanga and Eastern
Cape will soon be sending their missions to visit Chile to gain first hand
information on agriculture as a means to fight poverty, and social development
improvement initiatives, respectively.
In turn, Chile has expressed keenness in exploring possible joint ventures
in infrastructure development projects in support of New Partnership for
Africa's Development (NEPAD). This should also benefit South Africa's
preparations to host the 2010 World Cup Soccer Tournament. Chile hosted the
tournament in 1962 and we believe that the experience is still freshly perched
on the minds of the Chileans and we certainly hope to draw on from their
lessons.
Other cultural exchanges between the two countries involve South African
assistance to Chile to establish thematic museums and heritage sites in Chile.
Also South Africa is assisting with the installation of Chile's first ever
botanical garden in Santiago and all of this is done with the technical support
and expertise of the Kirstenbosch Gardens in Cape Town. The garden will be
inaugurated in October when the first South African tree will be planted. This
will be symbolic of the growing and sprouting relationship between the two
nations. We like to thank the people of Chile for choosing South Africa to work
with their tourism industry. As a sign of confidence in us, Chile has decided
to send their people to South Africa to learn English as Chile's second
language despite ours being a multilingual country with more than twenty
languages of which eleven are official.
We look forward to future occasions to cement this relationship and want to
take this opportunity, on behalf of South Africans, to wish the people of Chile
well in the celebration of the 196th Anniversary of their Independence.
I thank you
Issued by: Department of Public Works
18 September 2006
Source: Department of Public Works (http://www.publicworks.gov.za)
