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Welcome to South Africa
HE Mr Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma
President of South Africa
On behalf of the Government and people of South Africa, may I say: Molweni, Sanibonani, Dumelang.
These three words - which are an indigenous form of greeting in three of our eleven official languages - come with the warmest of welcomes to the South African portal of the Commonwealth of Nations website.
Our country, South Africa, has come a long way since the benighted days of apartheid that resulted in the expulsion from the Commonwealth back in 1961.
During the anti-apartheid struggle, the Commonwealth of Nations played no small role in concientising the whole world about the evils of institutionalised racism in South Africa.
Over the years this community of nations painstakingly brought massive pressure internationally, in many different ways, to bear on the racist and repressive State.
The Commonwealth should continue to be a torch-bearer in our collective efforts to improve the condition of humanity across the length and breadth of our common planet.
During these times of global warming that poses such a mortal threat to the future of humanity and planet earth, we look forward to the positive role this august institution will play. This will no doubt include contributing relevant protocols, to tame humanity's destructive and wasteful habits, through multilateral institutions such as the United Nations.
Never in the history of humanity has the need for scientific and technical advances been so sorely acute. These needs to be deployed both for development and for environmental balance. Never in the history of humanity has the challenge been so great, in reconciling there admirable aims, which must be turned from centrifugal into centripetal forces.
The Commonwealth of Nations is an institution ideally placed to address such needs for our common good, and to invest in the advancement of science, technology, development and poverty-reduction in a way that is conscious of the need for environmental balance and sustainability.
Similarly, the Commonwealth can be an even more significant global player in fostering the arts, music, culture, literature etc because of its unique make-up and the way it spans different outlooks, political systems and cultures - in essence, drawing vitality from the enriching and vibrant diversity of its member states and their people.
Since rejoining the Commonwealth of Nations in 1994, the democratic South Africa has been an active participant in the work of the Commonwealth and we will continue to hold aloft the principles to which this important institution adheres. We firmly believe that these principles constitute an ideal foundation for a better world we all seek to build.
As a nation we are confident that through our Commonwealth networks we can strengthen international unity by understanding and respecting diversity and building platforms of peace.
This website is an essential South African tool in the Commonwealth's multifaceted role of improving the lot of humanity. We wish it well, and countless hits.
The above message was provided by the then President Thabo Mbeki
Brief biography of the President, HE Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma.
The Presidency of South Africa