(TALKZIMBABWE) Speech at dinner with President Zuma

Speech at dinner with President Zuma
Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:10:00 +0000

SOUTH AFRICAN President and Sadc chairman Jacob Zuma arrived in Zimbabwe on Thursday afternoon for a two-day working visit during which he officially opened the 99th edition of the Harare Agricultural Show. The following is the full text of President Mugabe’s speech at the dinner he hosted for his South African counterpart.

I FEEL greatly honoured and privileged, on behalf of the Government and people of Zimbabwe and on my own behalf, to welcome Your Excellency as well as members of your delegation, to Zimbabwe. To us, Zimbabwe is your second home. You lived here when you fought for the independence of your country.

You have visited us so many times before. However, this visit is special to us.

This is indeed the first visit you are making to Zimbabwe after the resounding victory of the ANC in the recently held elections and your own election as the
President of the Republic of South Africa.

Although I have had the opportunity to congratulate you before, Mr President, the people of Zimbabwe and I would like to congratulate you once again upon your election and to wish you the best in the stewardship of your great country and people.

Your presence among us, Comrade President, cements the strong bonds of the historic friendship and alliance that we forged in the trenches with the ANC when we fought the twin evils of settler colonialism and apartheid.

As we speak, some of your gallant compatriots, whom you fought with and who perished at the hands of the enemy, lie buried here.

The only comfort we can derive from their paying the ultimate price is that their sacrifices have not been in vain.

Today, the evil apartheid system is history.

All South Africans today walk with their heads high in the country of their birth regardless of their colour, race, gender or creed.

South Africa is now a thriving democracy and the envy of many on the continent and beyond.

Your Excellency, we are always proud and happy to receive our brothers and sisters from South Africa. We have become more than neighbours to each other.

We are bound together by common ancestry, geography, history, heritage and marriage.

History tells us that we all at one point belonged to the Kingdom of Mapungubwe which existed between AD900-AD1300 and straddled modern-day South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

As perhaps the first kingdom in Southern Africa, it has all the attributes of being the centre of our civilisation, given its architectural prowess, which represents human ingenuity at its best.

We appreciate the importance that you attach to the Mapungubwe Monument, hence the invitation you extended to me to join other regional leaders at the African
Leadership Dialogue of the Inaugural Mapungubwe Heritage and Leadership Exposition in November 2007.

We further appreciate that your Government saw it befitting to adopt as your highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe.

To us, Mapungubwe is equally important, as we understand it is the forerunner to the Great Zimbabwe which we have adopted as our national monument and from which our country derives its name.

Your Excellency, I am grateful that in spite of your busy schedule, you graciously accepted our invitation to be the guest of honour at the Harare Agricultural Show and thus open its 99th edition.

This is indeed a great event in our calendar, particularly as you may be aware, Comrade President, that agriculture is the backbone of our economy.

The Harare Agricultural Show thus gives an opportunity to players in this very important sector to showcase their activities and products.

This is especially so in light of the far-reaching reforms which have transformed our agricultural sector.

The land reform programme, which is at the centre of this transformation, has enabled Government to redistribute the land which was monopolised by a small minority to the detriment of the larger majority of people, constituting the indigenous African people.

Furthermore, Government has over the years taken various measures to enhance productivity in the agricultural sector by providing the new farmers with the requisite financial resources and technical skills. Through the farm Mechanisation Programme, my Government was able to make available farming implements, such as tractors and ploughing equipment.

In that vein, your Excellency, I want to acknowledge with appreciation your government’s assistance with agricultural inputs worth R300 million, provided soon after the formation of the inclusive Government.

That support went a long way in giving confidence to the new government.

Your Excellency, we are also aware that your government has taken a number of measures to empower the majority of the people of South Africa, who yesterday were denied full participation in the mainstream economy of the country of their birth. The Black Economic Empowerment is one such example.

To us, the Land Reform Programme was one such policy measure designed to empower the majority of the people.

Our Government stands ready to share experiences with your Excellency’s government with a view to enhancing the well-being of our respective peoples through economic empowerment.

Comrade President, I am equally delighted that South African companies have responded positively to our invitations to participate at the Harare Agricultural Show. I am informed that quite a number of your companies are exhibiting at this year’s show.

Participation at each other’s shows mutually benefits our two peoples as it promotes trade, investment and development in both countries.

Your participation at the show will not only boost confidence in the agricultural sector, but in other sectors as well, especially the manufacturing sector, which is very much dependent on agriculture.

Your Excellency, your coming presents us with yet another opportunity to review issues of mutual interest and our bilateral co-operation.

I take this opportunity, on behalf of the people and Government of Zimbabwe, to express sincere appreciation over the manner in which your government handled the stand-off between my Government and some Western governments.

Your government stood by us in the face of unjustified sanctions and vilification by Western governments, led by the British and the Americans.

Alongside other progressive and objective governments, you resisted the unwarranted attempts by these governments to put Zimbabwe on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council.

In the end, your principled stand against unjustified attempts to vilify Zimbabwe won the day.

Hence we thank South Africa for courageously fighting to stop the machinations of those who would have liked to manipulate and abuse this important body, the Security Council, for their selfish political ends.

Furthermore, I would like to express gratitude to your predecessors, former Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Montlanthe, for their handling of the conflictual
political situation in my country with great vision and foresight.

As the Sadc Facilitator on Zimbabwe, former President Thabo Mbeki played an instrumental role in bringing the main political parties in Zimbabwe to the negotiating table in order to resolve their political differences. Through his dedication and resilience, the Global Political Agreement, involving Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC-M, was signed in September 2008.

This breakthrough agreement was soon followed by the formation of the inclusive Government by the three parties.

Your Excellency, I am happy to inform you that the inclusive Government is alive and well and that the three principals are committed to its success. Indeed, a political accommodation of this nature is bound to experience teething problems.

However, this has not distracted us from our agreed common vision to establish peace, turn around the economy, and work to deliver the services expected of us by the generality of the people.

We are encouraged, Your Excellency, that we have made a lot of progress since the formation of the inclusive Government.

Our Economic Recovery Programme is beginning to show positive results. Inflation has been tamed and schools and hospitals are functioning. Our greatest constraining factor is the sanctions.

On the political scene, our constitution-making process is on course.

The Organ on National Healing has been launched and dialogue with the EU and other Western countries had started.

However, Comrade President, those very countries who have hitherto imposed sanctions on us still maintain these illegal punitive measures in spite of the progress we have made as an inclusive Government. One is tempted to conclude, Your Excellency, that regime change on the part of our detractors is still an active policy option.

Your Excellency, your government’s commitment to our economic turnaround is sincerely appreciated. In February 2009, in Cape Town, the Minister of Finance was given an opportunity to table our economic blueprint, known as the Short Term Emergency Recovery Programme (STERP) to the Sadc Council of Ministers.

Furthermore, within the auspices of Sadc, which you currently chair, a number of commitments were made by member states to help us resuscitate our economy.

In this vein, Comrade President, let me take this opportunity to thank you personally and your government for providing us with direct budget support and lines of credit for our industry.

Comrade President, the prevailing stable political and security situation in the region augurs well for our quest within Sadc for regional economic development and integration.

Developments in the DRC give us hope for lasting peace and security in that country. We welcome the co-operative spirit characterising relations among the countries around the Great Lakes region.

We are also encouraged by the recent developments in Madagascar where the leaders have agreed to resolve their political differences through an inclusive dialogue process.

Within the realm of Sadc, we should continue to lend support to the peace process, so that the country reverts to constitutional normalcy.

The initiatives of the Sadc Facilitator, our dear brother and former Mozambican President, Joachim Chissano, deserve our full support. To this end, we remain convinced that Sadc should lead the dialogue process in close consultation with the AU.

Your Excellency, when we got the news that South Africa had won the bid to host the International Football Association Soccer World Cup tournament in June 2010, we rejoiced with you.

We were excited that, for the first time in the history of the tournament, it was finally coming to Africa. We wish you success in hosting the tournament. Apart from promoting sport in our continent, we are mindful of the economic benefits which this event could generate for the region.

We, therefore, need to closely work together bilaterally and within the framework of Sadc so that we maximise the opportunity of obtaining benefits into our areas of tourism and commerce.

Your Excellency, although the Zimbabwe Warriors missed a great opportunity to participate in the first World Cup football tournament in Africa, I wish your national team, Bafana Bafana, success in the tournament. Rest assured that all the Zimbabwean football fans will be behind Bafana Bafana.

Their success will be our success.

Your Excellency, once again warm welcome to Zimbabwe.

May I now propose a toast to your good health; the amicable relations between our two countries and peoples; and the success of our region.

Cheers! Siyabonga. Tatenda.

I thank you.