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17 February 2005

Your Excellency, Prime Minister Fernando Da Piedade Dias dos Santos and your dear wife,
Speakers of the South African and Angolan National Assemblies,
Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Senior Government Officials,
Distinguished Guests,

It is indeed a pleasure and an honour to officially welcome you, Your Excellency and your dear wife, as well as your delegation, to our country.

I trust that your stay thus far has been comfortable and fruitful, and that the rest of the visit will be as enjoyable and as memorable as our visit to Angola was last year. We still have fond recollections of the warm hospitality, and also of the fruitful discussions we had, which took our relations to new heights.

I was also delighted to have had the opportunity to pay a courtesy call on the President of the Republic of Angola, His Excellency President Eduardo dos Santos, during which we had very meaningful discussions.

I am indeed pleased that you were able to meet with some members of our business community yesterday, as we need to take our economic sector along as we further deepen our relations. That is why I had felt it important to meet Angolan business during my visit as well.

We have also noted with appreciation, that various South African business groupings such as ABSA, Protea Hotels, the Gauteng Economic Development Agency and Eskom have visited Angola to explore opportunities.

My dear Colleague and brother, when we meet, it is a gathering of one united people, given the historical links between our two countries.

We share a history of struggle against colonialism and its attendant evils such as racism. Your successes and decisive victory over Portuguese colonialism resulted in the liberation of Angola and Mozambique, and added greater impetus to our own struggle. Your victory undoubtedly guaranteed our own victory.

We shall never tire of thanking you for the solidarity, friendship and support during our struggle. Angola became our home, and you became our brothers and sisters when we needed you most.

As we celebrated 10 years of democracy and freedom during 2004, we also remembered heroes who fell during the struggle in our two countries.

Their memories will always be enshrined in our minds, as these gallant fighters paid the supreme price for freedom.

As our two countries share a common history, it should not be surprising that we are working so hard on both sides to ensure that we cement relations between the post-apartheid South Africa and post-conflict Angola.

Various visits undertaken by authorities of both countries and the meetings between the ruling parties of both countries, including the number of flights per week, which I am told are always full to capacity, have solidified relations. These developments must be viewed as the threshold to greater co-operation between the two Republics.

I am truly delighted that we were able to sign four agreements earlier today, which further increases areas of cooperation:

These agreements are:

* An Agreement of co-operation in the field of social protection and re-integration.
* An agreement for the Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments.
* A Protocol on Defence Cooperation.
* An agreement on electricity cooperation.

My dear Colleague, let me once again congratulate Angola on achieving peace and stability after decades of conflict. We stand ready to assist where we can, with the reconstruction of Angola, as we are one people.

We remember Agostinho Neto's words that Angola was not free until South Africa was free, and until the rest of the region and the continent were free. We recall that this great leader was a very close friend of our late ANC President, Oliver Tambo, and this deep-seated friendship permeated into the relations between the ANC and MPLA.

His words about the need to free the continent, pose a great challenge for us to play a meaningful role to ensure that the African continent is free of conflicts, racism, gender discrimination and other ills.

The question of achieving sustainable economic development remains a top priority and all of us should continue working tirelessly to make the African Union and its organs succeed.

Mr Prime Minister, we would also like to congratulate you on having acceded to the African Peer Review Mechanism, as this indicates the seriousness with which Angola takes the rebuilding of the African continent in all respects.

Let me also express our support and good wishes for the elections scheduled for next year in Angola.

My dear Colleague, once again, welcome to South Africa. May this visit take us many steps forward towards the further deepening of our bilateral relations.

Mr Prime Minister, Distinguished Guests, may I invite you to rise and join me in proposing a toast to His Excellency President Eduardo Dos Santos and His Excellency President Thabo Mbeki, and to the people of Angola and South Africa!

Cheers!

I thank you.

Enquiries: Lakela Kaunda
Cell: 082 7822575

Issued by: The Presidency
17 February 2005