I would like to extend a very warm welcome to all of you and to thank you all for joining us tonight. I would also like to thank our amazing residence staff, under the leadership of Brenda Tod, for overseeing this lovely event.
Finally, I would like to thank the Ifa Lethu Foundation for working with us and loaning the works of art that you see on the walls of our residence tonight. This art work has a fascinating history. It was created during the struggle-era by black artists, was taken out of the country during the 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s and is now, thanks to Ifa Lethu, it is begin repatriated to South Africa.
Interestingly, it was members of the diplomatic community, including our first African American diplomat, who were instrumental in supporting the struggle era artists during this period and preserving their work for future generations. We’re so pleased to have this artwork on display in this house.
This house also has a fascinating history, which we are just beginning to learn. It served as an important meeting place for ANC leaders during the apartheid era and we are proud to be living here during another historic and important period for both of our countries. We look forward to using this beautiful home, which belongs to the American people, as a place where we can bring together Americans, South Africans and people from all over the world. We look forward to welcoming people from all walks of life and with all sorts of perspectives to talk, share and learn from one another. We begin that dialogue tonight and we look forward to welcoming you all again, hopefully in smaller groups! And now, I am very proud to introduce my husband, Ambassador Donald Gips
Remarks by Ambassador Gips
Opening Remarks at his Welcome Reception
October 15, 2009
Dumelang (Setswana)
Sanibonani (Zulu)
Goeie naand (Afrikaans)
Rea lotsha (northern Sotho)
Good evening!
Thank you all for coming here tonight. It is an honor for me and my wife to welcome you into our new home. This is not a regular home -- although I do insist with my three boys that we are still a regular family and they have to clean up their rooms and set the table as they did in Colorado. However, in reality, this home represents the people of the United States of America and their engagement with and commitment to the people of South Africa.
By hosting you here tonight, I would like you to feel that you are truly stepping into the home of good friends:
• friends you have known for some time:
• friends you work with – at your workplace and at community events;
• friends you discuss issues and politics with, always debating better ways to solve problems;
• friends who want a clean, safe world and good education and job prospects for their children, just as you do.
While the general context that has brought us together is a foundation of shared values and friendship, we are realistically at the beginning of our face-to-face working relationship. Washington and Pretoria both have new administrations, led by Presidents pledging positive, concrete change for our people. In these difficult times, President Obama and President Zuma have laid out ambitious, historic agendas. It is my job, along with my dedicated Mission staff, to help accomplish the intersecting goals of these agendas for the advancement of both our nations. I look to you, the movers, shakers and thought leaders of South Africa, to work with me to do this. Although I may not have a chance to talk to all of you here tonight, please know that I look forward to meeting you personally in the future and that my Mission greatly appreciates the contact and partnership we have had with you in the past.
All of us here have had a trajectory in life that led us to where we are today. My own story includes a pivotal moment in 2004 when I watched Barack Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention. I had worked in Washington before but had left politics and government to spend more time with my family. Barack Obama changed that in one night -- with his words, with his passion and with his ideas. He was everything I had hoped to find in Washington, and, as I have gotten to know him, he has lived up to that.
Many of you are living proof of the miracle of South Africa’s transformation to democracy. The story of South Africa’s recent history is the story of people’s potential to do great things. The peaceful changeover from apartheid to a true multiracial democracy is one of the great historic achievements of our time. Yet the damage that apartheid left in its wake poses huge challenges to the legacy of this miracle.
The United States, and the world, need South Africa to succeed in realizing its full promise, building a nation where all share in the prosperity of this great country,
• where jobs are plentiful and HIV is tamed,
• where high quality education, housing and health care are available to all,
• where crime is defeated and women feel safe on the streets and in their homes, and
• where the blessings of economic development extend beyond the cities to the rural areas and villages of South Africa.
Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama have sent me here with a very straight forward mission: to help you achieve your vision through building a true strategic alliance that reaches across all sectors of American and South African society. I would like all of you here tonight to know that my Mission colleagues and I are all fully committed advancing the U.S.-South African relationship and making this partnership one of the most productive and beneficial in the world.
Our nations have already built the first leg of this alliance in the fight against HIV/AIDS and other health threats, including TB. Over the last five years, working in close cooperation with the South African Department of Health, the United States has invested over 10 billion rand in NGOs, community organizations and government partners to build the infrastructure that will allow South Africa to fight the spread of AIDS and improve the health and well-being of South Africans infected with or affected by HIV and other life-threatening illnesses.
Our mutual work to improve global health is enhanced by our shared economic priorities, which seek to bring the jobs and growth necessary to pull out of the global recession and entrenched poverty. We look forward to strengthening our partnership on initiatives important to South Africa, including education, energy, rural development, crime, women’s empowerment, and entrepreneurial projects.
Our two nations are also working together to improve regional security and stability. South Africa is the continent’s anchor: your role as a regional negotiator for disputes on the continent, including Zimbabwe’s power-sharing agreement, is critical, as is the wide range of developmental and humanitarian assistance that you provide to your neighbors.
South Africa plays a key role in regional organizations and global multinational organizations as the leading African voice on global issues, such as nuclear proliferation. South Africa will star on the world stage next June as the first African host of the FIFA World Cup (where I personally hope to go to the finals and watch the United States play Bafana Bafana for the Cup).
The U.S.-South African relationship is at the foundation of our relations with all of Africa. Our citizens do business with each other, travel to each others’ most beloved places, study together and enjoy much of the same culture and music. Our governments work together to fight HIV/AIDS, build peace and stability around the continent, and bring more jobs and prosperity to our people. Through an enhanced strategic alliance our two great democracies can achieve great things for our people and the world and I look forward to dedicating myself to this great cause.
This is a new era in our relations, and I consider it a privilege to serve my country in South Africa at this historic time. I look forward to frank conversations with all of you about what the U.S. role can be here in South Africa.
President Obama said, “It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today, we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.” I am committed to making that happen here with our friends and partners in South Africa. Thank you.