Mr Speaker, the recent visit of the Secretary of State, the hon Hillary Rodham Clinton, has strengthened South Africa's ties with the United States of America, which is still the world's largest economy and the world's dominant military power.
South Africa's associations with the USA are many and various, not least in the struggle for racial justice, but also include the establishment by American missionaries of Inanda Seminary near Verulam, Adams College near Amanzimtoti, Youth Alive in Dube, Soweto and the American Methodist Episcopal "donkey" Church, with its headquarters in Everton.
At the 2010 World Cup, US citizens were the biggest single group of foreign visitors. South Africans have benefited from the many academic programmes and university exchanges, not least of which is the Fulbright scholarship, and Oprah Winfrey's academy is a fine example of the US' generosity to South Africa.
General Motors and Ford are examples of US investment that has brought positive benefits for South Africa. The USA's unilateral generosity in passing the African Growth and Opportunity Act in 2000 has given African and South African manufacturing industries unprecedented opportunities to access the huge American market.
It is pleasing to note that Secretary Clinton, speaking at the University of the Western Cape on Wednesday, 8 August, affirmed that the USA will extend the African Growth and Opportunity Act until 2015. It is important that members of the SACP positively embrace good relationship with the USA, and accept the reality of a world in which the Berlin Wall was demolished 20 years ago. [Interjections.] [Time expired.]