Welcome Address by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms Sue van der Merwe on the occasion of the Ninth International Fair at the Union Buildings, City of Tshwane, 11 November 2006

Chairperson;
Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Dr Gwen Ramokgopa;
Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Dr Abdullah Alzubeidi;
Ambassadors and High Commissioners;
Members of Provincial Government;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and gentlemen

It is with great pleasure that I join the city in welcoming you to the 9th International Fair, which is a cultural, and culinary feast hosted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and the City of Tshwane. This occasion is one of the ways in which we deepen the relationship we have with our international friends represented here in South Africa and particularly here in Tshwane.

May I take this opportunity to say how pleased I am to share this welcome with the Mayor of Tshwane, Dr Gwen Ramokgopa. There is considerable significance in the fact that this city is led by a woman. Many thousands of women came from all over the country, and indeed all over the world, to this very sight on the lawns of the Union Buildings, a few months ago to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Women's March on the Union buildings.

It was on these lawns that 20,000 women gathered and marched all those years ago to present their petition. They sang the now famous refrain "Wathint abafazi wa thint umbokodo" - Strike the woman and you strike the rock. They came to protest the dreaded pass that women were being forced to carry. They were incredibly brave. They didn't know what they would face when they arrived. They could have been shot or beaten but they came in their thousands.

It was here that those women drew a line in the sand. This far and no further. It is a line that South African women held all during the years of apartheid. It took another thirty-eight years for the demands of those women to be codified in law, but the line in the sand had been drawn here on these lawns and up those stairs, where they marched.

Now we have a Bill of Rights in our constitution, women's rights are protected by law, and the dreaded dompas is long gone. We have a woman Executive Mayor of the city; we have women in the cabinet and in leadership positions throughout our society.

We have much to thank those women for, who helped shape our democracy starting on these lawns.

There have been many other momentous events on this spot. Many happy events, the inauguration of the first Democratic South African President in 1994, many protests and even many parties. This place represents so many things that epitomise our democracy and how are nation is developing.

And today it represents how much we value our international friends and partners. During the years that I have described, so many peoples across the continent and across the world support the struggle for democracy in South Africa and many sacrificed much for us to achieve our freedom.

We must not nor will we ever forget that.

Our relationships have moved on since those days. Luckily we still have many friends and partners across the world, but now instead of mobilising against the apartheid state at the United Nations and at other multi-lateral forums abroad, we all talk about improving trade relationships, about doing business, about increasing our tourism volumes, about sharing technologies, and all manner of modern things. But isn't that great -that we no longer have to fight the battles we did a few short years ago.

Of course there are still great battles to be fought in the modern world. These partnerships, started in those early days now enable us to tackle our challenges together as a countries in the global community.

President Thabo Mbeki has recently returned from Beijing in China where he attended the Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation. There he spoke of partnerships: He said

A winning partnership is surely one in which we encourage sustainable trade and investment while promoting a better life for all within sustainable human settlements. Peace and friendship will surely flourish when we empower and uplift the poorest of the poor from hunger and unemployment, disease, homelessness, illiteracy and environmental degradation.

Today is about celebrating our partnerships and about sharing our cultures and our food and the spirit of our different countries.

In our ongoing partnership with the international community, in addition to our political and economic relationships we will always seek to build bridges between people, not only between governments.

The International Fair, therefore, provides us with one such opportunity to build those bridges and learn more about each other.

It also allows us, as government, to promote a greater understanding of the importance of our international work to our own communities and particularly the good people of this city.

Through this fair we hope:

• To create the opportunity to forge closer ties between the local community and diplomatic missions in South Africa;
• To emphasise the importance of the link between our domestic and foreign policies through fund raising initiatives in partnership with the diplomatic corps;
• To provide and informal opportunity to engage with each other to strengthen our friendships and the ties that bind us and
• To provide a platform to showcase our cultural heritage.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

So allow me to welcome you to this occasion and to thank you all for coming and participating so enthusiastically. I look forward to listening to the music, seeing the dances, tasting the food (my personal favourite) and enjoying the company.

I would like also to thank all of those of you who worked so hard to make this happen from our own department and also from the City.

The main thing is not to listen to speeches but to get on with the business at hand - which is having fun.

Thank you all again for you presence here and don't forget we are also here to raise funds!!

I thank you.