Affairs, on the occasion of the Ambassador's night, Sandton Inter-Continental
Hotel
10 June 2006
Mrs Saedah Yahaya, President of IDSA
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Deputy Minister Pahad
Queen Mother of the Royal Bafokeng
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
I am honoured to deliver this address on behalf of Minister Dlamini Zuma,
who due to unforeseen circumstances, cannot be here tonight. She had wanted so
much to be at this function to personally demonstrate her appreciation of the
critical role the International Diplomatic Spouses Association (IDSA) plays in
the South African community and at the same time have a good time in your midst
in this swinging celebration that the organisers have put together.
Let me also take this opportunity to thank the organisers for their splendid
arrangements to make this event a success. I also wish to thank all the guests
for coming out on such a cold night and opening up your hearts and wallets.
Judging by tonight's programme, I am certain we will set the night on fire.
During the course of last week, while I was in Cape Town I had the
opportunity to visit Day Hospital in Khayelitsha in Cape Town and meet with the
people who work there, supported by one of the grants provided by your
organisation.
I was deeply impressed by what they able to achieve under very difficult
circumstances.
The grant provides for an interpreter to assist medical students and
community service doctors to take a full and comprehensive case history of the
patients.
While a simple interpretation service may not seem important in itself, if is
truly remarkable what leverage this simple task provides to the doctors. It
enables them to get a full and detailed medical history from the patient,
greatly facilitating a diagnosis.
The interpreters also assist the patient with careful explanation of the
doctorsâ comments which has lead to a huge improvement in the patientsâ
compliance with taking their medication and return visits to the hospital for
follow up treatment.
With the huge volumes of patients (one doctor will see 50 patients a day)
this service significantly improves the efficiency of the hospital service, it
assists the doctors, it also provides an essential training basis for the young
doctors and medics.
I might add that many of the young doctors I met are not South African but
come from other countries in Africa, particularly from the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) region. I have to say that I was most impressed
with the general way in which the hospital was run. Literally hundreds of
people come there every day and are treated in an orderly way, all the nurses
and staff were cheerful and polite and the two young interpreters, Khanyisa
Mtwana and Ezzy Zozi, were extraordinary.
Congratulations then on your contribution to this very important project
with both health and training spin-offs. We live in a world, where if the truth
be told, for most of the world's people, life is still, in the words of Hobbes,
"nasty, brutish and shortâ. It is the reality of this world that we address in
our daily work, so as to nurture a global reality characterised by sustainable
development, a culture of human rights and a better quality of life for all the
world's people, wherever they may be.
While multilateral organisations, continental and national governments play
their role in ensuring that the desired world becomes a reality, the truth is
that every effort counts, every initiative that is genuinely intended to help
the poor can make a difference and can save a life.
The idea that âI am my brother's keeperâ is what motivates so many individuals
and organisations who are trying to work for the good of the world as a
whole.
These are the groups and organisations like IDSA that we must salute, for their
work is often conducted in silence far from the eyes of the world's press. Yet
they too are the unsung heroes of a quiet social revolution, a way of changing
the world.
Yes, indeed, they may well be taking small steps, but it does take small
steps to create a giant wave of energy that can be unleashed to fight poverty,
to make a case for global equality in all spheres of governance, to open the
road to dialogue, negotiations and inculcate a culture of permanent peace. This
is not unfamiliar ground for us South Africans. We have been along this path;
and it was the only route that could take us to a common destination. This is
the road we are still building day by day working towards the desired destiny
of real equality and people-centred development.
We live in a world where almost everything we do is inextricably linked to
everything else. We can choose to make waves, in this way helping others to
help themselves. Or we can choose to be inactive, selfish and not lift a
helping land. For the latter, there are consequences in choosing to look the
other way and to ignore suffering. Let us continue to work together for a more
harmonious world reality where people are placed at the centre, where human
life is precious, where the world's problems are solved not through the barrel
of a gun, but through talks, laughter, love, common understanding, bringing an
end to hunger and hardship, asserting the right to live in friendship and in
peace.
I think that, as South Africa, it is this ethos that we embrace this is what
we mean when we say we are adopting a multilateral approach to world affairs it
comes through the realisation that for there to be world peace and progress, we
can only do our work and fulfil our tasks together with others. Nations can
choose to conquer others but they do so at the peril of all humanity. Not to
draw weapons is harder. To understand the humanity of those who appear to
oppose us is harder. But ultimately, for the sake of the existence of
humankind, what must surely prevail is the indomitable spirit of humanity.
Speaking at his Nobel Peace Lecture in 1961, Chief Albert Luthuli succinctly
captured this ethos, when he argued thus:
It may well be that South Africa's social system is a monument to racialism
and race oppression, but its people are the living testimony to the
unconquerable spirit of humankind. I think it is this refusal to break, to give
in to oppression, a belief in a future, that we ought to take seriously even in
present times. Over the years, civil society movements around the world have
been, among those, at the forefront of fighting against poverty and inequality
and injustices that have crippled the lives of the most vulnerable people in
our societies. As governments we need to acknowledge the role that civil
society movementâs play in supporting our work and in helping to safeguard the
well being all our people.
I therefore wish to express our warm appreciation for the contribution that
you continue to make in the fields of education, health and support for child
and women victims of abuse. This goes a long way towards advancing the ideals
of building a better life for all our people for Africa and the world. Thirty
years ago this year in the month of June, this country was one whose children
were dying on the streets of Soweto, a country in which the youth had decided
they could take no more and they took on the apartheid government.
Their uprising ended in tragedy with many young people having lost their
lives and with so many having to flee the country. But this was only the start
of a renewed struggle that would ensure that the indomitable human spirit would
prevail and that humanity would be the victor. A new generation had opened the
way for a greater freedom that would only be fully realised in 1994, but that
already in 1976 had begun in the minds of young people to take shape and to
flower.
Today, South African society celebrates the triumph of the human spirit and
we thank you for your part in this.
Have a great evening!
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
10 June 2006
Source: Department of Foreign Affairs (http://www.dfa.gov.za)
