South African History Online

Toast at the Banquet Hosted by Queen Margrethe of Denemark

Copenhagen, 15 March 1999

Your Majesty
Your Royal Highnesses
Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen

You will know, Your Majesty, from your visit to South Africa three years ago,
how warmly our people feel towards the Danes, as a people who have shared our
pain, our hopes and our triumph over injustice. Your Majesty's kind words of
welcome to myself, my wife and our delegation make us feel that we too have a
home away from home, here in Denmark.

Our visit brings us an opportunity to say what we have said before, but
cannot say too often.

It is that South Africans will never forget the selfless efforts of the
Danish people, over many years, to share our struggle to free South Africa from
the inhuman system of apartheid.

Your Majesty, Denmark has done you proud. Indeed, it has done the
international community proud by responding so nobly to the declaration that
fundamental human rights are the rights of all people everywhere.

Since our shared victory, Danish co-operation and support has brought the
sweet taste of clean running water to many a child in South Africa. You have
made it possible for many children to learn to read and write. Through Denmark
is a small country, it has played a major role in the building of the new South
Africa, and continues to do so.

Above all you have always respected our right to choose the path towards our
goals. You never questioned our right to decide how our freedom should be
attained. And today as we address the legacy of apartheid with your
co-operation, we continue to enjoy your respect for our decisions.

In short, your support, like that of the all the Nordic countries, was never
that of a distant benefactor, but that of a partner.

But perhaps I should add here that there are some South Africans who complain
that this spirit of partnership was taken too far when it was extended to the
football field during the World Cup tournament, to produce a draw rather than a
victory for the team which they knew to be the best!

Your Majesty;

There is scarcely an area of importance to the building of a new and just
society in South Africa that Denmark is not involved in.

You are our partners in the entrenchment of democracy; rural development;
education; job-creation; and the development of business amongst those who were
excluded by apartheid.

Denmark's part in the setting up of our Truth and Reconciliation Commission
has been profound, and it would be right on this occasion to recognise the
special contribution of Professor Carl Noorgaard.

Having benefited from the international community's commitment to human
rights, democratic South Africa recognises its obligation to participate in the
efforts to create a new international order that promotes the realisation of our
shared vision of an equitable, peaceful and prosperous world.

We are encouraged in this by having in Denmark both a trusted partner and an
example. As an industrialised country that is extensively involved in the
efforts of the developing world to overcome poverty, Denmark, we know,
appreciates the need to reshape the institutions which regulate the
international political and economic systems, in accordance with the principles
of equity and democracy.

Your Majesty, it is as the countries of the North and South join hands across
the divisions and the imbalances that history has left us, as we give concrete
meaning to the ideals which we share, that I and others across the world who
have dedicated their lives to the striving for a better world for all, would be
able to retire with contentment and personal peace.

I firmly believe that the relationship which our countries and our peoples
have forged, will help make a reality of those hopes.

Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you all to join me in a toast to her Majesty
Queen Margrethe and the people of Denmark; and to the flourishing of friendship
between our peoples.