Your Excellency, President Obama and Mrs Michelle Obama,

Deputy President of the Republic, Hon Kgalema Motlanthe and Ms Mtshali,

Honourable Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Max Sisulu,

Honourable Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Mr Mahlangu,

The Chief Justice of the Republic, Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng,

Deputy Chairperson of the National Planning Commission and Deputy President of the ANC, Mr Ramaphosa,

African Union Commission Chairperson, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma,

Honourable Ministers, Premiers, Deputy Ministers and Executive Mayors,

Members of the diplomatic corps,

Senior Advisors to President Obama and the entire delegation,

Distinguished guests,

 

Let me once again extend our warmest welcome to you and your family, Mr President and your delegation. 

I am also delighted to welcome your dear wife Michelle for her second visit to South Africa. 

You are no stranger to Africa Mr President. You are a son of the African Continent. Your African tour is actually a homecoming. 

 

Mr President allow me to express our thanks for your prayers and wishes for a speedy recovery for President Mandela, whom I know you regard as a personal hero. 

As you have correctly pointed out, he is also a personal hero to all of us here tonight. And so, as we celebrate our friendship, we are also keeping Madiba in our thoughts.

He reminds us of so many special leaders who have played crucial roles in our intertwined histories, such as Martin Luther King and Oliver Reginald Tambo.

They taught us that freedom comes at a price and it needs a continuous collective effort to ensure its rewards.

 

Mr President, history will recognise this visit as a turning point in relations between South Africa and the United States of America. 

 

As you said earlier, our relations are extra-ordinarily strong. 

We now have a duty to take them a step further for mutual benefit. 

We appreciate the trade focus of the visit.  We are pleased that our mutual trade is again reaching its 2008 pre-recession levels. Our priority is to consolidate and grow this trend.

We seek partnership from the US to help South Africa to deepen industrialization, create jobs and develop skills by expanding investments in our country, as called upon to do so by our National Development Plan.

I would like to invite both US public entities and private companies to join South African companies as partners in some bankable projects. 

 

We envisage investments in areas where the USA can add considerable value. These include infrastructure development, agro-processing, beneficiation of our minerals, information technology and the green economy. 

I would like to see an exchange of business delegations soon Mr President to consolidate this visit. 

Mr President, I would also like to thank the USA and all its people for their support, assistance and partnership with us in the fight against the spread of HIV and AIDS, through the PEPFAR Programme. We also appreciate cooperation in our national priorities of education and security.

 

Let me also congratulate you on the wonderful work you are doing with the youth and on your successful meeting with them earlier today in Soweto.

You are reminding us that we must invest in young people who are the future leaders of this planet we inhabit.

Allow me as well to once again, through you, thank the Anti-Apartheid Movement in the United States for solidarity in the fight against apartheid.

We remember the tireless work of organisations such as the Free South Africa Movement, Artists for a New South Africa, the Congressional Black Caucus as well as the Southern Africa Project which were instrumental in preparing for Madiba’s visit to the United States in 1990.

 

You will tomorrow speak at the University of Cape Town, delivering a lecture commemorating a great speech by a human rights campaigner who was a good friend of the South African people, the late Senator Robert Kennedy. 

I am also pleased that you will be visiting my former home, Robben Island!  You have been there before. 

What is significant now is that you are taking your family with you. 

Your lovely children need to know what Madiba and all freedom fighters were subjected to. 

 

In this way, as future leaders, they will be able to build a better world in which no human being would be subjected to such a violation of freedom, basic human rights and dignity.

We covered a lot of ground earlier today in our bilateral discussions. 

The stage is now set for a lot of work to be done to further deepen our bilateral relations and also to promote democracy, peace and development in the continent. 

 

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen,

 

May I invite you to rise and join my wife and I, in a toast to President Barack Obama and Mrs Obama, to stronger bilateral relations and continued excellent relations and friendship, between the peoples of South Africa and those of the United States of America.

I thank you.