9 January 2002
Thank you, Chairperson, for the invitation to attend and address this significant gathering.
First, let me express warm pleasure at the cordial relations that exist between our two countries. It is a cause of immense mutual satisfaction that the long years of collaboration between the liberation movement in South Africa and the people and Government of India have culminated in a strategic relationship that holds out such promise.
By this I mean not only promise for our two countries, but for the interests of the countries of the South generally. It can be said with confidence that this relationship is critical to the efforts of the South to claim its just position in the world - in international organisations, in access to markets, in bridging the digital divide, in provision of health and welfare, in achieving justice on the race, gender and disability front; and, generally, in fighting its way out of the vast disadvantages left by a system that, as presently constituted, still discriminates against the have-nots.
The nuts and bolts of the South African-Indian relationship will further be strengthened during a technical visit to India to be undertaken soon by officials of the South African Government. This technical visit, among other things, will discuss detailed co-operation for the new round of WTO negotiations, and will negotiate and possibly conclude a framework agreement for a proposed Free Trade Agreement with India.
Let it suffice to say we are firmly committed to extending business-to-business contact and cordial governmental linkages.
At governmental level the Joint Ministerial Commission (India and South Africa) provides for bilateral consultation on economic matters - and we are already able to point to positive outcomes including a trade agreement, defence as well as science and technology co-operation, and so on. It goes without saying that many South Africans are avid viewers of films emanating from India.
There is still vast room for boosting bilateral investments. Our bilateral trade - virtually non-existent in the early 1990s for obvious reasons - has grown impressively from that small base, and it is noteworthy that there has been diversification from traditional exports to more value-added exports. But I would submit that the process is in its infancy still.
Because of India's IT competencies, it is in this area where India is likely to make the biggest impact in South Africa and other parts of the African continent.
The consequences of the tragic and dastardly acts of terrorism in New York and Washington on September 11 last year will reverberate for a long time. With these, we also condemn the recent attack on the Indian Parliament and other acts of terrorism.
President Mbeki clearly defined our approach to these acts during the debate on the occasion of the 65th Session of the UN General Assembly:
"Where we might have used the concept of a global village loosely in the past, on September 11 terrorism taught us the abiding lesson that we do indeed belong to a global village. None within this village will be safe unless all the villagers act together to secure and guarantee that safety. All must act to promote the safety and security of one and all on the basis of a shared responsibility born of a shared danger.
To guarantee world peace and security in the light of the threat posed by terrorism requires that this organisation, the United Nations, must discharge its responsibility to unite the peoples of the world to adopt an International Convention against Terrorism.
September 11 emphasised the point that even as the democratic system of government is being consolidated throughout the world, even as we all work to sustain the possibility of a serious and meaningful global dialogue, there are some who are prepared to resort to force in pursuit of their goals.
We must achieve global cooperation for the speedy resolution of conflict situations everywhere in the world.
Beyond this, we must act together to determine the issues that drive people to resort to force and agree on what we should do to eliminate these. At the same time, we must make the point patently clear that such determination does not in any way constitute an attempt to justify terrorism. Together we must take the firm position that no circumstances whatsoever can ever justify resort to terrorism.
The need to realise the goal of determining the matters that make for peace, together, once again underlines the need for properly representative international institutions to build the necessary global consensus.
It would seem obvious that the fundamental source of conflict in the world today is the socio-economic deprivation of billions of people across the globe, co-existing side-by-side with islands of enormous wealth and prosperity within and among countries. This necessarily breeds a deep sense of injustice, social alienation, despair and a willingness to sacrifice trything to gain, regardless of the form of action to which they resort."
I specially commend to you the thoughts of the South African President at this time. The scale of these events could be such that they suggest - no, require - very grave and sustained attention by our leaders, internationally, until we achieve a better world for all, free of the uncertainties and conflicts that have plagued us for so long. It could be that renewed awareness of the very prospect of mass destruction will, at last, see a crowning conclusion to the work begun last century, as enshrined in the Atlantic Charter and other documents for peace, which arose, for instance, from the allies' (in too many cases sadly temporary) fight against racism and intolerance as personified by Hitler. Dare we not only pray for but hope for a better world? I think we should.
It was a cause of immense encouragement to those fighting for freedom in South Africa to witness the phenomenon of the 1947 independence of India, and to see how resolutely that country immediately set about fighting apartheid at every possible opportunity - including being the first country to apply sanctions against Pretoria, and risking suffering economically in consequence. South Africans still recall the words of scorn and derision heaped on eminent Indians at the United Nations such as Mrs Pandit - abusively dismissed as a coolie meid by a South African cabinet minister - as this principled and exemplary campaign against apartheid was pursued.
By 1994, less than half a century later, we in South Africa were able to reap the fruits of democracy ourselves, to emerge rubbing our eyes into the daylight miracle of a widely unexpected freedom, and to thank countries like yours for the vast help given in the fight against racism - and thereafter to embark in earnest on a partnership in seeking to change the world for the better, which is arguably the harder part of the liberation struggle.
So this is where we stand now. Our Government, firmly rooted in the majority of the people of South Africa, is acting with confidence and no mean success in many theatres.
Since 1994 the democratic government ensured advances through a universally acclaimed process to manage the macroeconomic situation and embarking on the restructuring of state assets. Considerable gains have been made in rolling out telecommunication infra-structure (more than 6 million lines), the upgrading and construction of sections of national roads, the building and upgrading of clinics and hospitals and the upgrading of stadiums and sports facilities.
There is an overall increase in the payment of social grants. Beneficiaries from the Child Support Grant have increased from nearly 28 000 two years ago to more than 1.1 million in July 2001. Fifty five percent of South Africans have access to free basic water and more than 7 million people have been reached through the water supply programme. Formal education is now reaching the vast majority of children between the ages of 7 and 15; more than 94% in this age category attends schools.
Notwithstanding these and other achievements the apartheid legacy has left us with huge areas of poverty and underdevelopment to deal with.
It is in this context that the SA Government cannot be seen to be a distant onlooker or having a mere laissez-faire approach to dealing with the political economy of South Africa as we seek to address the horrific socio-economic conditions we continue to face.
In a country like South Africa, where the full resources of the state used to be mobilised to enrich those who were already privileged and systematically to impoverish the rest, it is necessary for government to be an active player in the economy to ensure the promise of early social justice for those previously excluded.
This requires, for instance, sustained affirmative or corrective action on the employment front; both rural and urban development programmes which are imaginative and high profile; proper encouragement and assistance for the development of micro, small and medium-sized business enterprises so as to strengthen the economy and provide employment, and other measures aimed at socio-economic transformation.
In any event it is only in the realms of economic theory that one can speak of perfect competition or the so-called free market. Markets obviously play a critical role in both national as well as international economic institutions. But there is no "free market" in the world today. If there was we would presumably have no or very little need for institutions such as the World Trade Organisation.
Governance undoubtedly is affected by economic factors. Poor economic performance and growth are not conducive to good governance. Probably the biggest problem faced by countries of the South is how to eliminate poverty.
The 1999 Human Development Report of the UNDP notes:
"When the market goes too far in dominating social and political outcomes, the opportunities and rewards of globalisation spread unequally and inequitably - concentrating power and wealth in a select group of people, nations and corporations, marginalising the others "When the profit motives of market players get out of hand, they challenge people's ethics - and sacrifices respect for justice and human rights"
When it comes to statecraft, India, which has had a democratic system since 1947, offers a good example of the critical importance of enabling the people of a country to decide for themselves who should govern them. We support this approach not because it is, as alleged, bequeathed to us by the West, but because a Government can only be fully confident of its mandate if it has the proven confidence of the people that it governs. Knowledge of the people's wishes is a prerequisite for good governance. Ignorance of people's wishes is dangerous for government and governed. It is significant that in the New Partnership for African Development, a major new initiative which has been launched in Africa, special attention is paid to the issue of good governance and a democratic way of life.
The institutional structures of a country, the particular electoral system that is utilised, do vary from country to country as these are instruments to give effect to the right of people as to who shall govern them, at national, provincial and local levels.
In all this it must be recognised that Governments are not eunuchs, but elected to govern. There are times - e.g. when past abuse of good governance has been so appalling - when this has to be done with a very firm hand, and with due direction from the centre, subject to a democratic Constitution and the support of the electorate. The people should govern.
Building on the wishes of the electorate Governments should foster a developmental and democratic state. A system of participatory government should be implemented and improved not only at local levels. This will ensure the empowerment of the poorest of the poor, in our case African women in rural areas, to play a significant role in their own destinies.
Governments are also elected, surely, to cut out unnecessary red tape, to combat waste and - of topical importance in many parts of the world - to curb corruption. We have had our fair share of the last mentioned, particularly given our corrupt history before 1994 in SA; and it has been necessary to maintain a high public profile and resolute action in support of good governance so as to create a climate in which maladministration and corruption do not fester. There has been recognition, even among the government's critics, that the system is working on this front.
The challenge for governments is how best to strive for a civil service that is accountable, morally incorruptible and fully conscious of its responsibility to the nation state, a civil service that fully understands and has internalised the role of the state, is capable of implementing policy, providing efficient services to the people and acting in a disciplined manner. It is an institution that has endured. Yet for too long and in too many countries, it has been those among the civil servants who are the ones who are corrupt, who have used their positions to amass wealth.
I would argue that in South Africa and in similar cases government quite clearly has a very important role to play in the economic, political, social and cultural spheres.
This we do largely in the new South African role as peace facilitator and economic friend of the world. Our President, Mr Thabo Mbeki, was able - in his new year message recently released -to note a process of 'moving forward'.
But we still have to deal with international perceptions.
In his well-written book on the atrocities in the Congo, Adam Hochschild recounts some of the images Europeans had of the Continent:
"When Europeans began imagining Africa beyond the Sahara, the continent they pictured was a dreamscape, a site for fantasies of the fearsome and supernatural. Ranulf Higden, a Benedictine monk, who mapped the world in about 1350, claimed that Africa contained one-eyed people who used their feet to cover their heads."
He continues:
"And as for trying to sail down the west African coast, everyone knew that as soon as you passed the Canary Islands you would be in the Mare Tenebroso, the Sea of Darkness. In the medieval imagination [writes Peter Forbath] this was a region of uttermost dread". and even if he should be able to survive all these ghastly perils and sail on through, he would then arrive in the Sea of Obscurity and be lost forever in the vapors and slime at the edge of the world." [Hochschild, A; King Leopold's Ghost, 1998]
Surely Africa should no more be "at the edge of the world", even less the "slime at the edge of the world".
The now well-known New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) is but the beginning of changing these perceptions and deal with the poverty and underdevelopment on our continent. South Africa is also engaging in a range of other efforts to concretise the process of 'moving forward', as has recently been noted by President Mbeki.
We are preparing to host the inter-Congolese dialogue which will enable the people of the pivotal nation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to take its peace process further.
A transitional government is in place in Burundi and this is one of the areas in Africa where South African troops - peacekeepers not warmongers as in the apartheid past - are stationed to assist the process of national recovery there.
The first summit of the African Union - formerly the OAU - will be held in South Africa during the coming year, and South Africa will be holding the AU Presidency. With the current presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement and the chair of the Commonwealth, this will complete a troika of chairing world organisations.
The executive headquarters of NEPAD will be located in South Africa, at the request of other African states. NEPAD, a bold initiative by Africans for Africans in which Mr Mbeki has played an acknowledged leading role, has enjoyed wide backing in the developing and developed world, and promises revival for Africa over a wide front, while insisting on good governance and an end to conflict. It is essential to the realisation of the vision of an African renaissance, beginning in the current century.
Later this year South Africa - in a massive organisational task -will host the world summit for sustainable development, which promises to impact positively on the poor people of the world. It might be noted that the meeting of minds so remarkably achieved last year at the world conference against racism, xenophobia and other intolerances in Durban - despite rather precipitate and premature walkouts by certain countries - is an excellent augury for success at this coming earth summit in Johannesburg.
As we move to make secure the continental context in which South Africa operates - and this includes all available effort to stabilise the situation in Zimbabwe as potentially divisive presidential elections approach - we encounter a growing national confidence in building economic and inter-governmental bridges with countries such as India.
We South Africans are partners with India in the brave new world that is opening up for the South. We draw mutual inspiration from our historic struggles against injustice in the past. We share equally in the richness of the thought of Mahatma Gandhi, who earned an indelible place in history by committing his life to struggle in both our countries. We march, as one, on the road to development and renewal.
Thank-you.