High Commissioner Faith Radebe Plenipotentiary Representative (Designate) of the Republic of South Africa to the Caribbean Community
Deputy Secretary-General
Other Members of the Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat
Participants of the Regional Diplomatic Training Programme
Representatives of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is my sincere and profound pleasure to welcome you to this historic occasion - the first accreditation of a Plenipotentiary Representative of an African nation to the Caribbean Community.

Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, this ceremony is a particularly special one to the Community. This room has witnessed many accreditation ceremonies which have marked the establishment or the deepening of ties between CARICOM and external partners from the north and from the south. But this ceremony is special as it affirms solidarity and fraternity between South Africa and the Caribbean Community. South-South cooperation - one of the tenets of CARICOM’s foreign policy coordination - makes another critical step forward through your accreditation.

Excellency, you are no stranger to us. As South Africa’s Ambassador to Jamaica and Non Resident Representative to all other CARICOM Member States you have worked for and earned the respect and amity of many in our Community. We regard you as we regard your nation - as a friend - and we look forward to working with you to deepen that friendship, assured that your wealth of diplomatic experience and also your evident deep interest in our Region will go a long way towards making our cooperation successful.

Separated though we may be by an ocean, our Region has maintained a keen interest in the African continent and South Africa in particular. The reasons for this interest are axiomatic. They are rooted in history, culture and shared interests and concerns. But it was perhaps the Community’s abhorrence of apartheid and the resulting fervent advocacy within international fora, for the end of the ignominious apartheid regime and for the release from prison of South Africa’s most iconic leader, Nelson Mandela, which most actively fostered the deep friendship between CARICOM and South Africa.

The end of that regime and the subsequent and ongoing political and economic rise of South Africa have been for the Caribbean a source, not merely of pride but of hope. Hope in the sense that South Africa has demonstrated that the human spirit can and will triumph over even the basest of conditions.

Excellency, although efforts to foster links in trade and investment between CARICOM and South Africa have not yet borne fruit, I have fond memories of the warm welcome received by the CARICOM Trade and Investment Mission to South Africa undertaken by Ministers of the Community in January 1998. That Mission greatly strengthened our bonds of solidarity. These were further cemented through the visits of both Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki to the Region - the former in 1998 on the occasion of 25th anniversary of CARICOM, and the latter in 2003 on the occasion of the Twenty-Fourth Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government.

It is our hope that this tradition of dialogue and mutual support at the highest level will continue under South Africa’s new leadership.

Relations between South Africa and CARICOM have also been fostered through our involvement in the Commonwealth; the African Caribbean and Pacific Group of countries (ACP); and through the Community’s links with the African Union. As regards relations with the African Union, the Community is particularly appreciative of South Africa’s leadership role in advancing the process towards making the African Diaspora its Sixth Region.

The Community has also not forgotten the commendable role played by your country in 2004 on the Haitian question and the hospitality it extended to the former President of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide at a moment of particular difficulty for him.

South Africa was an integral part of the international advisory team to CARICOM Member States as they prepared to host the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2007. Indeed, it should also be recalled that the first cricket Test Match played by South Africa on their return to the international game was against the West Indies in Barbados. However, the less said about West Indies cricket these days, the better!

As we speak of sport, let me wish your country every success in the hosting of the Football World Cup in 2010. There is still hope of Caribbean representation in that tournament.

Excellency, as we advance our relationship we must find ways to widen its scope to enhance trade, investment and greater people to people contact. We know that among the limitations to our efforts to date have been inadequate transportation links. We must therefore work to find ways to circumvent or overcome these limitations, by, inter alia, inviting greater private sector and civil society involvement.

There are a number of issues which are engaging the attention of CARICOM at this time and I would like to point to two of them. As you are aware, the Member States of CARICOM, like other countries, both developed and developing, have been severely affected by the impact of the global financial and economic crisis. This crisis has highlighted in stark terms, the extreme vulnerability of the Caribbean economies. It is in the face of this reality that CARICOM sought your country’s advocacy on its behalf at the recent G-20 London Summit and for which we express our appreciation.

The impact of climate change on the small island developing and low-lying coastal states of CARICOM is the other issue of critical concern to us at this time. You must have witnessed at first hand, the severe effects of hurricanes and floods on some of our Member States. We are among those contributing the least to the causes of that global phenomenon but are among those most affected by it. Our priorities in respect of Climate Change include the achievement of substantial legally binding reduction in emissions; significant increases in the level of resources available to developing countries to assist their adaptation efforts and for research and development activities; and the need to ensure that vulnerability and not per capita income is the main basis for the determination of access to financial assistance for climate change.

Another critical aspect particularly for our Community is avoided deforestation, especially for Guyana, Suriname and Belize. It is for these many reasons that our Heads of Government have committed their countries to play an active role in the negotiation process in the build-up to the Fifteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009.

We look to your country for its support as we articulate our position on this issue in the various international fora since our very survival is at stake.

Excellency, at their core, all of these issues and their successful resolution reside in the principles common to South Africa and CARICOM - principles of freedom, equity, fairness, multilateralism, good governance, rule of law and ultimately humanism. We must reinforce our relationship using these principles.

Excellency, our Region counts on your continued enthusiastic pursuit of ever improved relations between South Africa and CARICOM to further advance our already strong ties and fraternal relations. We commit to working with you towards that end. I therefore have great pleasure in accepting your credentials as the Plenipotentiary Representative of the Republic of South Africa to the Caribbean Community. I wish you every success during your tenure.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org