Excellency United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon
Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers
The Premier of Gauteng
FIFA President, Sepp Blatter
Madame Graca Machel
Heads of the United Nations Agencies Represented in South Africa
Captains of Industry
Representatives of the Nelson Mandela Foundation
Distinguished guests,
Let me take this opportunity to welcome all our eminent guests to our beautiful country. The World Cup tournament has brought the world to South Africa. We are truly honoured to have the privilege of hosting all our wonderful friends and development partners from all over the world, especially at this auspicious occasion. I trust that you will enjoy your stay.
I am pleased also that there is a lot of work that is taking place alongside the World Cup. The tournament is not just all play and no work, as evidenced by this important gathering. Education has long been an issue close to my heart and a priority of the Government of South Africa.
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is very timely that this gathering takes place in June, which is South Africa’s Youth Month. During this month, we commemorate the struggle for equitable education by the youth of our country.
You will all recall the uprising of students in June 1976, fighting for better quality education and against apartheid education. The Millennium Development Goals enhance the struggle for a just society, especially goal number 2, which centres on achieving universal primary education by 2015.
With just days to go before the start of the tournament, it is indeed commendable that we have been brought together to promote access to education for all. Education is our government’s number one priority and has consistently received the lion’s share of the budget for a number of years. We realise that education is critical to the development and prosperity of our nation. Education is a key weapon in our arsenal of strategies to halve poverty and unemployment by 2014.
The priorities of our government, which include education, creating decent jobs, rural development, crime prevention and health development are all closely linked to our capacity to improve the quality of education we provide to all our children. Education is the only means out of poverty for the poor.
It is the only way to break the perpetual, vicious cycle of poverty which condemns the children of the poor to re-live the lives of their parents.
As our former President Nelson Mandela pointed out, “Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine that the child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation.”
Since the dawn of democracy, sixteen years ago, we have made great strides in transforming the education system that was thrown into disarray, for decades, under apartheid misrule. We have done extremely well in opening access to education. We now have to focus on improving the quality of learning and teaching. We have to ensure that our schools are working efficiently, that our educators are committed, learners are motivated, and our schools are well managed. We are determined to succeed.
Your Majesty, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,
We are also happy that the World Cup has afforded us the opportunity to accelerate the goal of achieving universal primary education. We strongly support the 1Goal: Education for All Campaign.
This initiative encourages various corporations and government leaders to mount a massive global education campaign. As we know, countless factors condemn many children in the developing world such as Africa to illiteracy. We are committed to this global education initiative, so that we can free our people permanently from the chains of illiteracy.
On 7 July we will host the 1Goal Education campaign summit on the sidelines of the semi-finals of the World Cup in Cape Town. World leaders will have the opportunity to draw up a roadmap to ensure that every child is in school by the next FIFA World Cup in Brazil in 2014.
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
South Africa is also committed to the objectives and goals of utilising sport as a tool for development and peace. We believe sport can effectively contribute to the realisation of social and economic development, including the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
For this reason, we commend the continued work of the United Nations Secretary-General (UNSC) through the Office of Sport for Development and Peace. This Office has effectively contributed to advancing advocacy work within the United Nations system and beyond, and has made significant progress in its work.
On its part, South Africa played an active role in the drafting and adoption of the United Nations General Assembly resolutions 64/4 and 64/5 relating to “building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal as well as the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa”, respectively.
This we have done due to the global recognition of the importance, role and contribution that sport like soccer, can make in the various fields of social and economic development. Given its universal popularity, soccer plays a positive role in bringing people together and can be mainstreamed into the strategic development agenda of countries.
In this context, the FIFA World Cup is one of the biggest sporting festivals of our age. It provides a global stage on which nations and peoples of the world come together to reaffirm our common humanity.
It creates the opportunity, so important in our troubled universe, for all of us to experience the reality that we belong to one human family, regardless of race, colour, national or ethnic origin, language, gender, age, political and religious belief.
Excellencies, distinguished guests,
In the dark days of our country’s history we found that sport had the power to change the world in a manner that little else can. Sport transcends racial, cultural and ethnic barriers in a manner that defies all reason. On my state visit to India last week, I was surprised to find that the cricket-loving nation was eagerly awaiting the start of the World Cup in South Africa.
Over a billion people across the planet will tune in to watch the sporting spectacle that is the FIFA World Cup. This presents us with an opportunity to leverage the power of football to hasten the provision of primary education for all.
By joining hands and working together, we can do more to ensure that the daughters of peasants, the sons of mineworkers and the children of farm workers can overcome the barriers of poverty and claim their rightful place in society.
I thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
8 June 2010
Source: The Presidency (http://www.thepresidency.gov.za)
