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Address by President Nelson Mandela at the State banquet in honour of President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, Cape Town

28 February 1995

Your excellency, President Joaquim Chissano,
Deputy President De Klerk,
Honourable Ministers,
Members of the diplomatic corps,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen.

A meeting of old friends and partners in struggle is always pleasurable. That is why it is for us such a welcome engagement to play host to you. Your Excellency, and your delegation from Mozambique.

It is also a great honour, for me and my government to reciprocate the hospitality you accorded us when we visited your country last year, the first ever foreign visit by the head of our democratic government.

If through that meeting we sought, among other things, to assert the high premium we place on relations with our neighbours, your presence here today confirms this mutual sentiment and much more.

Only a short time has passed since the yoke of apartheid was lifted from my own country; since its shadow was lifted from Mozambique and from our Southern African region as a whole. The progress we have since made in forging a new relationship may only represent the first steps. But they already bring tangible vindication of the noble vision of a peaceful and prosperous region, bound by relations of co-operation and mutual respect, which guided our peoples through decades of costly struggle.

As a people whose freedom owes much to Mozambique, we are proud that we have been able to assist your own peace process, including both development aid and assistance in the running of your elections last year.

The agreements which we signed this morning, on Tourism and Police Co-Operation, along with the other agreements already signed, are but the formal manifestations of a rapidly developing all-round relationship between close and friendly neighbours.

It is a sad reality, but in the nature of things in a region which has suffered so long a period of destabilisation, that the matters on which we have had urgently to work together include weapons smuggling, stock theft, drug trafficking and other crimes, as well as resultant population movements. Nonetheless, the closeness of our cooperation in these fields testifies to the interest we share in peace and security.

However, co-operation in such matters as road and air transport, shipping, health and electricity supply speak of the shared economic interests of neighbours at last free from the destructive constraints of civil strife.

In its scale, South Africa's participation in the rehabilitation of the Cahora Bassa scheme illustrates our commitment to ventures which will contribute to the economic development and integration of the Southern African region as a whole.

Ultimately, prosperity and peace between any two neighbouring countries in Southern Africa must depend on political stability and prosperity within the region as a whole. The South African Government is strongly committed to promoting policies which secure these ends. No longer shall South Africa be the fountain-he woes. No longer shall South Africa's government operate in isolation without due recognition of our neighbours' interests.

Mr President

One of the privileges your visit has afforded us has been the opportunity to bestow on you the Order of Good Hope, the highest award with which our country honours citizens of other countries who have contributed to the well-being of our people.

In doing so, we recognise both the steadfast and self-sacrificing support we enjoyed from you and your people in time of war and the tenacity with which you have pursued a path which has helped take us all towards peace and security in Southern Africa.

Ladies and gentlemen.

I ask you to rise and raise your glasses in a toast to President Chissano and the people of Mozambique and at the same time to toast continuing good relations between Mozambique and South Africa.

Source: Nelson Mandela Foundation

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