Hon Speaker, certainly South Africa will continue to play a role on the continent, as I said earlier. We are on this continent and we understand the challenges of this continent, as other countries do. We take collective decisions to participate where South Africa is called upon to play a role.
We have been doing it continuously, either at the level of facilitation or in mediation. This was done a long time ago. Remember, when President Julius Nyerere passed on, the task of mediation in Burundi was given to President Mandela, which he did, and succeeded in bringing about peace and stability. This included sending our forces to help stabilise the country.
I think we will continue to do so at all material times for the sake of Africa. We have just outlined the fact that Africa suffered because we were not all there. We were attacked or undermined at different times in different parts of the continent and finally Africa was colonised. We are now saying that we are not going to allow any destabilisation. We are coming together to work together to ensure that we stop any activities that undermine Africa. So, we will be there at all material times. Wherever there are difficulties we will be there. We will continue to do so and make contributions to the structures. If it means militarily, it will be militarily as well, for the sake of the continent. We are not going to stop, but we are going to continue to do so. [Applause.]
It's a task that was given by the founders of the AU - to unite Africa to stand as one and to do everything. One of the tasks that the AU did was to unite behind us as we were fighting for our liberation and to establish a liberation committee, of which we were one of the beneficiaries. This has been going on and you can't change it. We will continue to do so. We are now free and we can play a role as well to ensure that Africa is secure. Thank you. [Applause.]