South African History Online

Speech by President Nelson Mandela to the Angolan National Assembly

Luanda, 29 April 1998

President of the National Assembly; Your Excellency, President Jose dos
Santos;
Honourable Members of Parliament,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I come to this chamber today in all humility, conscious that I am standing
before the elected representatives of a people for whom our freedom was as
precious as their own.

Angola's solidarity with South Africans struggling for their liberation was
of heroic proportions.

Before you own freedom was secure, and within the reach of our ruthless
enemy, you dared to act upon the principle that freedom in Southern Africa was
indivisible. Led by the founder of liberated Angola, that great African patriot
and internationalist, Agostinho Neto, you insisted that all of Africa's children
must be freed from bondage.

Between brothers and sisters; friends and comrades, thanks are out of place.

But knowing that our victory was unthinkable without your support, we stand
in awe at the enormous sacrifices you made.

And knowing what your support for us has cost you, we are deeply moved to be
invited to address the National Assembly of Angola at a time when the occupied
seats on all sides tell us that this institution can at last proceed to make its
full contribution to the democratic process endorsed by the people of Angola
five years ago.

The democracy you helped us achieve has brought us the opportunity to address
the basic needs of our people. With democracy have come peace and stability and
the conditions for social transformation, national reconciliation and sustained
economic growth in order to bring about the reconstruction and development of
will take many years, and it will bring many challenges.

But we are confident that we will overcome whatever difficulties that lie
ahead.

That is because South Africans have shown their determination and their
capacity to work together for the greater good.

And it is because our liberation has also created the possibility of
transforming the bonds of shared struggle between peoples into partnerships
between nations for peace and development.

The first state visit to Angola by a South African Head of State is a
milestone in that process as it affects our two countries.

Honourable members;

The full realisation of the potential for us to draw mutual benefit from our
relationship with each other, hinges on the success of the Angolan peace
process. South Africa unequivocally supports the peace process. We are
encouraged by the recent steps that have been taken in compliance with the
Lusaka Protocol. We congratulate all those involved, for putting the interest of
the whole nation before all else. And we look forward eagerly to the final
implementation of the provisions of the settlement in a peaceful manner.

South Africa, as a member of the United Nations, The Southern African
Development Community, and the Organisation of African Unity, is ready to play
whatever part it can in helping to ensure that the provisions of the Lusaka
protocol are met and that Security Council resolutions are adhered to.

In particular the South African Government is doing everything to comply with
the UN sanctions. Amongst other things we have tightened control and
surveillance at airports that were being used to destabilise the peace for which
Angola has been working.

The fact that some of these problems continue to undermine the sovereignty of
Angola shows that both South Africa and Angola face the threat of forces that
are unhappy with the changes that have taken place in Southern Africa. Indeed to
the extent that we shed blood together in pursuit of freedom, to that extent we
need to work together at all levels to defend our peoples; democracy and the
sovereignty of their nation states.

We believe we do not need to state here that we respect the right of Angola,
within the framework of international law, to deal with contraventions of
sanctions by anyone, including South Africans, within its own territory.

Within the same context of our membership of the international community of
nations an dour continental and regional organisations, we believe that our own
experience of a negotiated settlement may allow us to make a humble contribution
to establishing a lasting peace in Angola.

Our experience has taught us that negotiated solutions can be found to even
the most difficult and apparently intractable problems, when all those involved
put the good of the nation above all else, when they put long-term interests
before short-term considerations.

It was through such an approach that South Africans confounded the prophets
of doom who predicted nothing for our country but unending conflict. Instead
South Africans from every party and across every social sector are working
together. Economic stagnation has been turned to sustained growth and the
foundation has been laid for even more rapid development.

In wishing the same success for Angola we are not disinterested. As the
freedom of our peoples were inseparable, so too is the achievement of our goals
of democracy, peace, security and prosperity.

Such is the interdependence of all nations, and in particular the nations of
Southern Africa, that no one country can prosper in isolation. Peace and
stability will not only bring Angola the conditions for reconstruction of
Angola. They will enhance the potential for South Africa and Angola drawing
mutual benefit from each other's development. Our countries face similar
challenges and each of us can draw from the experience of others and complement
the expertise and the comparative advantages of the other.

Our visit is therefore no merely formal one.

I am accompanied by several of my Ministers, charged with laying the
foundation through discussions with their Angolan counterparts, of enhanced
bilateral co-operation. We hope too use this visit to establish a general
framework for co-operation in economic, scientific, technical and cultural
matters.

The large business delegation accompanying me is testimony to the fact that
South African companies wish to lose no opportunity to expand trade and
investment ties between our two countries. Though these links have grown
significantly in the years since South Africa became free, we have barely
touched the enormous possibilities. We are two countries whose potential has
largely been untapped because of our history of colonialism and apartheid - we
can help each other to address that legacy.

Peace and unity in Angola will also take us further towards realising that
vision of peace and development through co-operation which informed the founding
of the Southern African Development Community. SADC stands at a critical moment
in its development as it seeks to ensure that its structures are those needed to
seize the opportunities that exist for it to make a powerful contribution to the
development of the region and the continent as a whole.

Honourable members;

In time to come, when the history of Africa's rebirth comes to be written,
Angola's epic struggle to overcome the slavery, colonialism and invasion will be
a proud, if painful, chapter.

Success in your quest, under circumstances made difficult by that past, for
peace and the entrenchment of democracy, will help us meet the new and even
greater challenges of lifting our continent by our own efforts. It will have an
impact far beyond your borders, helping to unlock the economic potential that
will fuel the African Renaissance whose time has come.

As you address the issues of peace at hand, we stand with you. Peace can not
fail.

We wish you all the strength and fortitude towards the conclusion of the
peace process.

Your victory will be a victory Southern Africa and the entire African
continent.

I thank you

Issued by: Office of the President