Remarks by the Minister of Defence, Honourable Mosiuoa Lekota, at the occasion of the signing of an agreement between the Government of the Republic of South Africa and the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands concerning the status of military and civilian personnel, Pretoria

Ms Geeskelien Wolters, Charge d' Affaires of the Netherlands and your delegation
Special envoy of the Netherlands for Africa, Ambassador Ed Craanen
Acting Secretary for Defence, Mr Tsepe Motumi
Acting Chief of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), Vice-Admiral Refiloe Mudimu
Honoured guests
Ladies and gentlemen

We are gathered here today in order to participate in the signing of two important legal instruments. These are aimed at further consolidating the relationship between the Government of the Republic of South Africa and the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as strategic partners in ensuring the attainment of the objectives and goals of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad).

It is always a pleasure to welcome representatives of the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, given that relations between our two countries date back for more than three centuries. Prior to the attainment of our democracy in 1994, successive governments in the Netherlands had supported our struggle for freedom.

In addition, the people of Netherlands through the anti-apartheid movement also lent weight to the solidarity of other nations the world over in opposing apartheid.

This constrained bilateral contact between the Netherlands and the apartheid regime in many spheres. Such isolation gave impetus to the realisation by the then South African government that a society founded on principles of oppression and exclusion, would never prosper.

Relations between the Netherlands and South Africa regained vigour during 1990 with the acceleration of the dawn of democracy. Further momentum was given to bilateral relations by the South African Referendum in 1992 which sought to establish a framework for a legitimate government, representing the common interests of its entire people. Since that period our relations have gone from strength to strength.

These relations have been particularly fruitful in the consolidation of our democracy not only in fields such as education, health and skills development but also in our broader endeavours in peace support missions of the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN). Our partnership is not only key to supporting the eradication of conflict in Africa but also to our collective quest to contribute to post-conflict reconstruction in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi. Today, the peoples of Burundi and the DRC are living and enjoying democracy to which the government of the Kingdom of Netherlands played a significant role when they provided funding for our initial deployment in Burundi with Operation Fibber and for the integration as well as refurbishment of the accommodation for the emerging armed forces in the DRC.

The government of South Africa is mindful of the continued assistance of the Netherlands in this regard. Both the agreement and the arrangement which we are about to collectively commit to, will be instrumental in increasing the requisite shared expertise, so desperately needed to realise the vision of the AU on our continent.

The arrangements which we commit to here will be fundamental in furthering the aims of our strategic partnership and in re-enforcing our shared commitment to the values of democracy and good governance, as well as to peace and security on the African continent.

I thank you!

Issued by: Department of Defence
8 June 2007