Chairperson, Minister, Deputy Ministers, hon members, excellencies, ambassadors that I see here today, members of the diplomatic corps, this year we find ourselves at a very difficult time in modern history.
Across the globe, families are in distress as jobs and livelihoods are lost. We are not immune to this here in our own country and it will be our challenge to mitigate the effects of this crisis for our people.
President Zuma said in his inauguration address:
The dreams and hopes of all the people of our country must be fulfilled. There is no place for complacency, no place for cynicism, no place for excuses.
We in the international relations field have our own important part to play in the fulfilment of these dreams and hopes. The work of the Department of Foreign Affairs in the past administration, now the Department of International Relations and Co-operation, is premised on the principles and philosophies articulated in our Constitution. These principles arise from our history and have been forged and honed by great leaders of our movement, the ANC. These principles still guide our work today and are anchored in our belief in human dignity and the assertion of universal human rights.
In the introduction to a book entitled Legacy of Freedom: The ANC's human rights tradition the then secretary-general of the ANC and the current Deputy President of our country, Kgalema Motlanthe, wrote the following:
As demonstrated by the Africans' Claims in South Africa document, the ANC has always linked national unity and international solidarity. Today our commitment to multilateral participation in the international arena is evident in our efforts to advance the AU, Nepad and the vitality of the