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Mr. Chairperson, The Honourable Peter Mokaba, Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.
Lord Clinton-Davis and
Professor Per Wrammer, co-chairperson of ACOPS.
The Honourable A Kader Asmal, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry.
Professor Klaus Topfer, Executive Director of UNEP,
Vice-Presidents of ACOPS,
Fellow Ministers,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted to welcome you all to our fair mother city of Cape Town and to the shores of South Africa. This conference is most timeous, coinciding as it does with international preparations for the coming session of the Commission of Sustainable Development, during which we will review the efforts of the international community to improve the health of the oceans on our planet.

We are particularly pleased to welcome you here in one of our oldest coastal cities, the "tavern of the Two Oceans", whose history bears crucial testimony to both the promise and the pain that the seas bring to the South African experience.

Later today you will be visiting Robben Island, which has been used as a place of incarceration, banishment and isolation for the past three centuries. That island captures the image of our people's long struggle to create a just society. The icy waters that surround it served as a natural moat that the oppressive regimes of the past hoped would imprison and finally stifle hope itself.

But the oceans were also used as a source of apparently inexhaustible bounty. Our living marine resources have fed thousands of generations. Provided that we respected its elemental, unaimed natural power, the sea could be our treasure house, offering up precious minerals, oil and natural gas in addition to the diverse aquatic life forms that enrich our lives.

It is to these coasts that immigrants and visitors to our country have come. These coasts and the seaports they house, provide South Africa with a crucial outlet for our exports. It is from our coastline that we communicate, trade and enter into exchange with foreign lands. They are also major attractions as recreational areas for international and South African tourists alike who flock to our beaches in their thousands each summer.

The natural beauty, richness and diversity of our coastline is its greatest asset, taking in the spacious expanse of the semi-deserts of Namaqualand in the west; the rocky sea cliffs of the Cape Peninsula in the south; the coastal forest of KwaZulu Natal in the east; and the golden sands of Kosi Bay in the north.
Here we encounter yet another crucial frontier where humanity interacts with the oceans and the marine species that live in it. For those who live and work along it, the coast has been a source of opportunity and livelihood for many generations.

The sustainable management of that relationship formed part of the ancient wisdom passed down form generation to generation among the indigenous peoples who lived along our coasts. But decades of reckless exploitation of the seas, short-sighted and often irresponsible use of coastal resources; the inhuman policy decisions and practices of apartheid, all conspired to pose a direct threat to our coastline.

There would be little point attempting to restore the coast to its former pristine state. Human action has rendered that a fool's errand.

What we are called upon to do is to defend the integrity of our coastlines, to conserve the delicate eco-systems that they sustain; and to nurture the oceans, wash its shores both for the enormous economic benefits they bring to humanity and of the palpable, though intangible, benefits of pleasure and joy they give us.

The upwelling regions of the oceans, which lie adjacent to many coasts, are particularly productive in life supporting food chains and consequently also in fish supplies. Totalling less that 12% of the oceans' surface, coastal waters account for close to 50% of the world's fish supply.

During the course of this year, 1998, we in South Africa have passed two important items of legislation as a means of enshrining the concept of sustainable development as national policy. The Marine Living Resources Act aims to bring about more equitable access to this natural resource, and the National Environmental Management Act established a new frame work for all developmental endeavours. The sustainable use and management of our national waters and their resources was central to both.

Effective control of our marine resources, coupled with wise management of our coastal zones may well prove to be important for the future prosperity and the health of our people. Both these aspects are of crucial significance to developing countries, more especially those of sub-Saharan Africa, who are subjected to all manner of pressure to grant foreign vessels access to our waters in return for unspecified and obscure advantages.

South Africa is currently engaged in a Coastal zone Management policy process, which will lead to legislation during the course of next year.

Mr. Chairperson,

We welcome here the representatives of African regional institutions, such as COMESA and SADC. Also present for our deliberations are representatives of AMCEN and SEACAN, two African environmental bodies whose work needs the support and encouragement of us all.

We cannot over-emphasise the need for this continent to speak with one voice on environmental matters. Our continent is still recovering from the ravages of colonialism, but more importantly, we must guard against the temptations of an unprincipled and unregulated pursuit of private profit by the African elite themselves. The rationale offered for such behaviours is very often the highly commendable goal of economic development. But, I would submit, economic development that visits untold violence on the natural environment and the people is ultimately self-defeating.

Over many years, Africa has developed a close relationship with the donor community. I am therefore pleased to note the presence of members of that community amongst us. They will be listening and taking notes of the environmental agenda we develop, hopefully in the readiness to respond to it.

It is most fitting that the site of this conference is the South African parliament. Once this was a chamber that generated laws inspired by the most selfish aspects of the human spirit. Let us by our deliberations write a new page in its history, characterised by vision, wisdom, a generosity of spirit and determination to fight to improve the quality of life of the people of this continent and take our place among the global partnership of safeguarding the health of our oceans.

In closing, let me reiterate that our oceans and coastline are a rich and diverse asset, which we squander at our peril. This conference offers its participants the rare privilege of charting a course to preserve, defend and conserve the integrity of these oceans and our coastline for present and future generations.

Thank you

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