President of the General Assembly, His Excellency Mr Sam Kutesa,

Deputy Secretary General, His Excellency Mr Jan Eliasson,

Excellencies,

Colleagues,

Ladies and Gentleman,

It is my distinct honour to welcome you here today to celebrate our Twenty Years of Freedom and Democracy. I am particularly pleased to see the President of the General Assembly and the Deputy Secretary. 
 
On this befitting occasion, I would like to express my appreciation on behalf of the Government and people of South Africa to the international community, UN and Member States for the immense contribution and support to the liberation and democratic transformation in our country. 

Twenty Years ago we were readmitted back to the Family of Nations, the United Nations after years of isolation due to the system of apartheid that was in place. Through the support of many of you as members of the United Nations we succeeded in bringing down that evil system and introduced democracy in our country.

We are grateful that the United Nations at the initiative of you Member States took a stand and condemned apartheid and declared it a crime against Humanity.

Excellencies,

This is the first General Assembly session after the passing of our beloved late President and founding Father of our democratic Nation, President Nelson Mandela. 

In September 1994 President Mandela led the first delegation of the democratic South Africa to the General Assembly when South Africa was readmitted. During his time as a President of the Republic he made it a point that he always attended the General Debate of the General Assembly as a sign of his commitment to the principles and values of the Charter of the UN. 

He believed in the central role of the UN in resolving global challenges.

He was humbled when the General Assembly adopted a Resolution in 1994 declaring his birthday, July 18 a Mandela International Day. We will continue to work with You UN Member States to carry forward his legacy Peace, Human Rights and Poverty Eradication.

For the twenty years that we have been members of the United Nations we have carried our Charter responsibilities and obligations with diligence. We have been honored twice on behalf of our Region, Africa to serve in UN Security Council. We utilized our membership to advance the African Agenda and the interest of the continent in relation to peaceful resolution of conflicts.

We had the same honour to serve twice in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since our readmission. We have closely worked with our friends in the Continent and the South in general to advance the interest of developing countries.

We have equally served in the Human Rights Council of the UN more than twice and made our humble contribution to global efforts towards the promotion and protection of human rights in our region and across the globe.

We today would like to renew our commitment to continue to work with all of you as part of the community of nations in resolving the socio economic development, human rights and security challenges facing humanity. We remain committed to resolution of global challenges through international agreed mechanisms. We believe on the centrality of the United Nations in Multilateralism.

It is therefore, critical that we continue to modernize and strengthen the United Nations as the only truly representative and legitimate international organization.

For our part we will continue to make whatever contribution we could through participation in the different Organs and bodies of the Organization.

We are grateful for the support that many of you continue to lend to us as we consolidate our constitutional democracy, rule of law and respect for Human Rights both at bilateral level and other platforms. We have made great strides since our freedom in terms of improving the lives of our people and building a non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous nation.

A lot remains to be done and the journey ahead of us is still long. We will continue to count on your unwavering support and solidarity. 

I thank you and please enjoy the reception.