Your Excellency, President Dr John Magufuli,
Ministers and delegations on both sides,

Allow me, Mr President and Dear Comrade, to thank you for your kind and warm words of welcome.

Mr President, permit me to also express my gratitude to you for inviting me on a state visit to this beautiful country.

Allow me as well to extend our heartfelt condolences on the tragic and painful death of schoolchildren in a bus crash last week. May their souls rest in peace.

South Africa and Tanzania have a long standing relationship dating back to the years of our liberation struggle.

The bonds of friendship and comradeship were forged when the leadership of Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela and Joe Matthews met in 1962, in the very city we are congregated in, to discuss support for the ANC including the launch of the armed struggle.

Importantly, Tanzania afforded our movement and leadership the space to develop the watershed change in strategy, a gesture that would ultimately result in the eventual overthrow of one of the most inhumane and oppressive systems ever adopted by a regime.

Tanzania also heeded our clarion call, when in the aftermath of the 1976 student uprising, our leader Oliver Reginald Tambo approached the Tanzanian Government for the allocation of a piece of land to establish a school for South Africans banished from their country.

The Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College (Somafco) was thus established.

Later, Dakawa was established to provide especially vocational training and further contribute to the skills our people acquired and which would in future also assist to build the new democratic South Africa.

Indeed, Mr President, South Africa will never forget the role that Tanzania and her people played in the attainment of our freedom and democracy.

Importantly, we meet here during a year South Africa celebrates the centenary of our former ANC President, His Excellency Oliver Reginald Tambo. In his memory, we celebrate the strong linkages with Tanzania during this visit.

Today marks yet another exciting phase in our bilateral relationship, the inauguration of our Binational Commission.

This is the formal building block that structures our collective futures. It expands our historic friendship and provides an opportunity to grow our political, economic and social cooperation.

We need to refocus and reprioritise our cooperation for the mutual benefit of our respective countries, leading to the eradication of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

We acknowledge the progress achieved thus far which includes the existence of signed sectoral agreements. However, much more still needs to be done to further deepen relations.

We should expand our cooperation to include the demands of today, namely water and sanitation, beneficiation, education, health, science and technology, agriculture, tourism, arts and culture, mining, and infrastructure development.

Your Excellency,

The inclusive economic growth we aspire to is premised on a stable and peaceful Africa, in line with the objectives of Agenda 2063.

In this regard, at a regional level, I would also like to commend the invaluable contribution of the United Republic of Tanzania in bringing about peace and stability to the region.

This is with particular emphasis to your current role, Your Excellency, as the Chair of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.

This role is in line with the legacy of Tanzania in bringing about peace and forging African unity. Tanzania is indeed the original African Peacemaker.

Your Excellency,

Thank you for the invitation once again Your Excellency. This visit is certainly taking our relations to a higher level.

I thank you!

Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria