Speech By President Mandela At The Official Reception Hosted By President Sir Ketumile Masire
South African History Online 
Speech By President Mandela At The Official Reception Hosted By President Sir Ketumile Masire
Gaberone, 5 September 1995
Your Excellency President Masire and First Lady;
Honourable
Ministers;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
I am deeply honoured to be in Botswana at the beginning of the first ever
official state visit by South Africa.
Allow me to thank you, Mr. President, for the kind invitation to visit
Botswana, and for the warmth of the welcome which has been extended to us today.
As neighbours, we are bound by a common border, by history and by ties of
culture and language. For many of our people, each other's country is a second
home. For all these reasons we share beliefs and aspirations, and most
importantly a commitment to freedom, justice and respect for human dignity.
In pursuit of these noble ideals, Botswana and her people made an enormous
contribution to our struggle for liberation, defiant of pressure and violent
attacks from a much more powerful neighbour.
South Africa is now well into its second year of freedom and about to hold
its first ever democratic local elections. This, Botswana helped make possible.
Freed from apartheid and destabilisation, South Africa and Botswana can join
hands to work for the mutual benefit of our peoples. The Summit of the SADC last
week in Johannesburg confirmed that, together, too, we can make our humble
contribution to progress in Southern Africa. We can work with the rest of our
region to build it into a powerful force for development, contributing to the
rebirth of Africa and making its mark in the world.
I am confident that this opportunity for discussion and exchanges of ideas
will lead to even closer co-operation between our countries and our peoples
towards these goals.
A relationship born out of a common yearning for freedom at the turn of the
century, can at last become a partnership for peace and prosperity as we step
into the new millennium.
I thank you!
