It is a great pleasure for me to be able to address the Margaret Thatcher Centre Gala Dinner. After we both retired from politics Baroness Thatcher and I, and our spouses, met on several occasions and became friends. I would like to share with you my thoughts about the contribution that she made to the constitutional transformation of South Africa.
It is a great pleasure for me to visit Scotland. I have always had an affinity with the Scots.
It is a great pleasure for me to be able to speak to you this morning about the role that partnerships between government and business can play in ensuring economic growth and prosperity.
There can be no doubt that a sound partnership between business and government is essential for the promotion of economic growth.
It is a great pleasure for me to be able to address you today on the important questions of transformation and governance.
According to Charles Darwin the success of species is not determined by their relative strength or intelligence, but by their ability to adapt to change. It was in this area that our homo sapiens ancestors did really well. Not only were they able to adapt to the rapidly changing environments created by a succession of ice ages, they were progressively able to change the environments in which they lived. In effect, we humans became the only species with the ability to manage change.
Real, deep and meaningful friendships are rare and difficult to come by. I was fortunate to have a few close friends who inspired and motivated me to continue working in the fight for rights for all.
This morning, I would like to talk about my friendship with two such friends – Nelson Mandela and Bram Fischer – whose struggles may have been aligned, but were in themselves unique. Alongside them, we played our parts in working to create a new, united South Africa, and part of what I hope to convey this morning is the vision for the country that we shared.
It is a pleasure for me to address this inaugural conference of the Centre for Unity in Diversity.
The Centre’s goal is to promote the vision of unity in diversity that is articulated in the preamble to the Constitution. The time for such a Centre is ripe – because the concept of South Africa as a multicultural country in which all our communities enjoy equal respect and dignity is under growing pressure.
Real, deep and meaningful friendships are rare and difficult to come by. I was fortunate to have a few close friends who inspired and motivated me to continue working in the fight for rights for all. This morning, I would like to talk about my friendship with two such friends – Nelson Mandela and Bram Fischer – whose struggles may have been aligned, but were in themselves unique. Alongside them, we played our parts in working to create a new, united South Africa, and part of what I hope to convey this morning is the vision for the country that we shared.
It is a pleasure for me to address this inaugural conference of the Centre for Unity in Diversity.
The Centre’s goal is to promote the vision of unity in diversity that is articulated in the preamble to the Constitution. The time for such a Centre is ripe – because the concept of South Africa as a multicultural country in which all our communities enjoy equal respect and dignity is under growing pressure.
According to Charles Darwin the success of species is not determined by their relative strength or intelligence, but by their ability to adapt to change. It is in this area that our species – homo sapiens – has done really well. Not only were we able to adapt to the rapidly changing environments created by a succession of ice ages, we were progressively able to change the environments in which we lived.
