Remarks by President Motlanthe to Designated Heads of Mission at Credentials Ceremony

Presidential Guesthouse, Pretoria
Thursday 11 December 2008

Remarks by President Kgalema Motlanthe to Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Designate of the Kingdom of Spain Pablo Benavides Orgaz
Mr Ambassador, welcome to South Africa.  I am convinced that your presence here will definitely enhance the relations between the two countries and nations and that the people of South Africa stand to gain a great deal from your experience.  I hope that this mutually enriching relationship between our peoples will be cemented and strengthened by your presence here.

Welcome and congratulations.

Remarks by President Kgalema Motlanthe to Ambassador Designate of the Swiss Confederation R Barfuss
Ambassador and your dear wife, you are both most welcome to South Africa and I believe your presence here will truly cement and also elevate our relations to a higher level and with your experience we can only hope to benefit in how to take this relationship to a much higher level and also to ensure that we create a safer and more peaceful world so that future generations can live in peace in prosperity.

Congratulations on your posting to our country, you are most welcome.

Remarks by President Kgalema Motlanthe to Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Designate of Japan Toshiro Ozawa
Ambassador, welcome to yourself and your spouse and congratulations on your appointment.  We believe your presence here will serve to strengthen relations between our two countries and that the solid foundation that has been laid in previous years by my predecessors will serve both countries very well.  We believe that Japan remains committed to give effect to the objectives of TICAD IV.  We have seen evidence of this during the G-20 Summit in Washington when Japan was the first country to inject some finances into the World Bank in order to ensure that that institution continues to play a constructive role in the developing world.  We again congratulate your government on this.

Thank you.

Remarks by President Kgalema Motlanthe to Ambassador Designate of the State of Israel Dov Segev-Steinberg
Ambassador, you are most welcome and I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment and I hope you will find South Africa a very instructive nation in the sense that we have built this nation having come from a very conflictual past and we were able to find peace wherein all of our peoples are accepted and treated with dignity and perhaps, precisely because we have a very substantial population of South African Jews, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies has played a role in trying to cement the peace that we have achieved.  We hope that we can make a humble contribution to the establishment of an everlasting peace in the Middle East to ensure that both the people of Palestine and Israel can live side by side in peace so that that glorious part of the world can take its place of honour in the world community of nations.

I welcome and congratulate you once again.

Issued by Department of Foreign Affairs
Private Bag X152
Pretoria
0001

11 December 2008