Hon Deputy Speaker, hon President and Deputy President, hon Premiers, hon Ministers, hon members of the Joint Sitting, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, our forebear, father and former president of the ANC, Oliver Tambo, prophetically said in 1976:
[When we finally get free] ... we will have a South Africa which will live in peace with its neighbours and with the rest of the world. It will base its foreign relations on the principles of non-interference and mutually advantageous assistance among the peoples [of the world] as well as the continuation of the struggle against the system of imperialist and neocolonialist domination.
Ge ke eme mo pele ga lena Ntlo ye e Kgethegilego, ke gopola gore mo kgweding ye ya basadi, Mma Lilian Masediba Ngoyi - ngwana wa ga Matabane - le Mma Charlotte Makgomo Maxeke - ngwana wa ga Manye - ba swanet?e go ba ba myemyela ba re mala a basadi a rwala dikgolo. (Translation of Sepedi paragraph follows.)
[As I stand before this august House during this Women's Month, I think that Madam Lillian Masediba Ngoyi - Matabane's daughter - and Madam Charlotte Makgomo Maxeke - Manye's daughter - must be proud of the work that women have done.]
Malibongwe! [Praise!]
Social scientists Joe Luft and Harry Ingham designed the famous Johari Window to unravel the mystery in each one of us. The mystery is due to the fact that there are things that we know about ourselves, things which other people don't know; and there are those things that we don't know about ourselves, things which other people do know.
Our hosting of the Soccer World Cup taught us something about ourselves, namely: Those who believed in us always knew about us. It has also helped the world to know something about us, and that is: We always believed in ourselves. We also helped the world to know something about itself - something that we always knew about ourselves - and that is ubuntu botho. We taught the world about ubuntu in the manner in which we received our visitors and projected our humanity. This experience even touched the US soccer team during their Confederations Cup, to the extent that the team internalised ubuntu as its guiding philosophy.
The Boston Celtics, one of the giants of American basketball, have also found solace and spiritual guidance in our ubuntu belief. One American journalist, William Rhodes, who writes for The New York Times, wrote:
Ubuntu seems especially wellsuited to team sports in that it describes an approach to life that is characterised by selflessness, sharing, unity and respect.
The task for South Africa in asserting our place in the world can never be an event but remains a process. It is going to be a long journey. Like all journeys, there will be high moments and trying times. The hosting of the soccer World Cup was one such high moment. It followed others like the Rugby World Cup, the World Conference on Sustainable Development, and our first tenure in the United Nations Security Council during the years 2007 and 2008. Each of these moments laid the basis for the other, building on lessons learnt.
Never before in the history of the hosting of the World Cup has a country volunteered to share this rare privilege, with all its opportunities of incomparable magnitude, with its neighbours, let alone an entire continent. We took that decision as a country because we are sincere in our belief that this is Africa's time; ke nako! [It's time!]
Our continent can rise and walk tall in this African century. It can take its place among the nations of the world as an equal and indeed feed, clothe, educate and shelter its people only when we take bold decisions of this nature.
The correctness of our decision has been vindicated. The chapter has now been closed on the pessimism, the cynicism with which some sceptics viewed the ability and the capacity of our continent. I can now declare to you that, indeed, the world believes that we are a permanent Plan B.
We took measures to give concrete expression to our decision to make this Soccer World Cup an African event. We worked with countries on our continent - including the five whose teams qualified for the finals - to take the Soccer World Cup to every household in Africa and create conditions for its benefits to be shared by all our people for a better life.
We played our part as a country when the 8th Assembly of the African Union, the AU, reaffirmed our continent's commitment to owning the Soccer World Cup event and declared 2007 the International Year of African Football. We worked with other African nations in the context of the AU declaration - through meetings and programmes on sectoral issues like sports, tourism and the environment - for concrete action with concrete results.
It therefore made sense for our President to invite his colleagues and other eminent African personalities to the opening and closing matches of the event in recognition of the support received from our African brothers and sisters. In total, more than 30 African heads of state and governments honoured our President's invitation.
The SA Development Community, SADC, also took full advantage of the event through concrete action with concrete results. An example here is the launch of the SADC 2010 Investment Promotion Programme under the theme "1 Team, 15 Nations for Sustainable Investment". The programme, which will run up to December 2011, is aimed at mobilising investment resources for our regional infrastructure, trade and industry, and tourism, in order to support our efforts to combat poverty and accelerate the integration of our region.
We worked with the UN in leveraging the event for the accelerated implementation of its various agencies' programmes - from the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, and the Human Rights Council, to UN Sport for Development and Peace.
At the closing event of the Fifa 2010 World Cup, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the 2010 Fifa World Cup gave the UN a momentum in its work that will have to be carried through in the coming years and amplified in even further UN engagements with national governments.
I need to reiterate what our hon President said about our hosting of the 1Goal: Education for All campaign which he launched during the tournament. He said that for the very first time ever a political summit was hosted on the sidelines of a sporting event of this nature. We want to take this opportunity to thank you ever so much, Mr President, for that. [Applause.]
International artists and film stars, who were among the many visitors that were received during the one-month spectacle, left this country singing our country's praises, making my job even easier because they have become our future ambassadors.
During the event, the City of Cape Town opened its arms and for the very first time hosted - together with the DTI, Fortune 500, CNN and Time 100 - a three-day conference on African soil, which brought together international business luminaries and other world leaders. This served to confirm our continent as a new global opportunity. Though the Soccer World Cup may not have silenced the guns in some parts of our continent, or made poverty history for many of our people, it has strengthened our resolve, our conviction and our belief that a better Africa is possible.
We have received congratulatory tributes from all corners of the world, including the General Assembly of the UN, on the occasion of the inaugural celebration of International Nelson Mandela Day, as well as during the summit of the AU held in Kampala recently. May I also hasten to say that it was the first time that the UN General Assembly had declared a day to celebrate just one individual, Nelson Mandela. It has never happened before. [Applause.]
In his address to the AU summit that I alluded to earlier, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who does not necessarily share political ideology with me, said:
People in Germany, in Europe, all over the world experienced the modern Africa with perfect organisation and an overwhelming hospitality during the World Cup. Africa presented the world with the gift of an unforgettable festival.
These humbling accolades were summed up by none other than President Joseph Kabila at the 30th Jubilee celebration in Namibia the day before yesterday when he said:
To say the least, South Africa administered a blow to Afro-pessimism and rekindled self-respect, self-esteem and confidence among the daughters and sons of our continent.
We should accept these accolades with the humility which our country is known for. At the same time, we should be proud as a nation of the modest contribution we made to the cause of our African continent and humanity in general.
We have shown that as a country South Africa can play its role on this continent and globally as a committed and responsible member of the international community. We shall use this positive space to respond to the challenge of growing our economy and ensuring that its benefits are shared by all.
The event has indeed taught us something about ourselves, something which Madiba in particular always believed about us, and that is: Our ubuntu can pull us together as a team, in our diversity, to rally behind a uniting vision. We now know that when we are united, with our differences set aside, our ubuntu can prevail to inspire others.
In the next two years, we will be joining the UN Security Council again, led and inspired by ubuntu. I thank you. [Time expired.]