Budapest, May 14, 2012

Dear Deputy Minister Fransman,
Dear Ambassador Netshitenzhe,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honour and a great pleasure for me that I can share this special moment of celebration with you here in Budapest. It is a privilege that we can mark this outstanding day together with our colleagues and friends from Pretoria with whom we have conducted today very useful talks on various bilateral and multilateral issues. During our discussions we were pleased to note that the excellent relationship between our two countries is strong and in the future will become even stronger. We have established that there is still enormous potential in developing our friendly and close relations. Hungary is offering her capabilities in the framework of the ten-year infrastructural development program of South Africa, as well as in the field of agriculture, medical industry and water management. We also support the active accession of our NGOs to the EU projects which offer palpable benefits to the people of South Africa. Our talks today are just a beginning; we still have a lot of work ahead.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

When you look into the very heart of what April 27th means for the people of South Africa, it strikes you that our two geographically distant countries have so many important values in common. For many years the courage and dignity of our people under oppression was a beacon to the world. The wind of change finally reached our lands around the same time: Hungarians overthrew the communist regime in 1989, while South Africans swept away the apartheid system in 1994.

Freedom Day, which is marked in South Africa as one of the most important national holidays – just like our own Freedom Day–, is not the exultation of a victory above another nation. It is the celebration of the equality of human beings and the complete expansion of civil rights.

However, now we all are aware that it is not enough to achieve freedom; we have to take care of it day by day. Threats of a doomed political system might not linger around anymore. Nonetheless, there are new challenges in our modern world that can potentially overshadow our earlier successes. Poverty, debt, a difficult economic environment, the lack of social security or a reliable education system – potential diseases even for a modern, developed, industrialized country – could easily generate similar inequalities that were imposed by a twisted one-party political system before. It is the responsibility of the state- the democratic representatives of the people and as a loyal and devoted executive, - to safeguard the democratic foundations and institutions of a nation.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Africa is a truly amazing continent with endless treasures of our Earth in the sense of natural resources, as well as human culture. Hungary believes that these treasures should be exploited primarily for the benefit of the local population in order to promote the welfare, modernisation and the democratic future of the African nations. The more developed countries should give a helping hand in technology transfer by offering partnership. South Africa, however, is a partner not only in a regional context, but also in a global framework. We are honestly glad to see that South Africa is taking more and more responsibilities for tackling global challenges.

Hungary is ready to explore more about the world. We are determined to expand our global attention and deal with issues that are not solely an interest to our country, but we would like to understand contexts of other regions as well. We are keen on engaging ourselves in constructive conversations to shape a more comprehensive picture of the whole world. We know that South Africa is a valuable partner, and we can count on you on in our efforts. There is already a small history of establishing diplomatic relations between our countries, and we agree on and share the same values as guiding principles to our nations.

South Africa is also home to a relatively small, but strong group of Hungarians, who settled mostly in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban. They represent a special link and serve as an additional engine in further boosting the already close ties between our two countries.

Dear Deputy Minister Fransman,
Dear Ambassador Netshitenzhe,

On the occasion of your National Day please accept my best wishes in your valuable work for a prosperous Republic of South Africa. I do hope that despite being away from your land, you feel at home in our country, and your celebration today with your Hungarian friends remains as a good experience in your memories.

Thank you for your kind attention.

(kormany.hu)