Thabo Mbeki Quotes

The parastatals are an important driver of the process of Black Economic Empowerment and they have been doing it, and will continue to do it.

Your developed countries are taking teachers from South Africa, they are taking nurses, because people are better paid where they are going.

You can see now with all the assurance that people have about the overall general management of the economy, they then ask more specific questions that we are able to answer.

The public service needs lots of people, South Africa generally, needs lots of people.

The King had been a good friend of the government and the people of South Africa and we all mourn his passing with our brothers and sisters in Saudi Arabia.

I don't think there would be many examples of South Africa pushing its weight around the African Continent. I don't think the facts would substantiate that argument.

You can see that there is an increase in the volume of freight that moves by air. And so, we have got to solve the problem by making sure that that is done properly.

South Africa has faced many problems in the past. You would understand those problems if you understood the history of the struggle to get rid of Apartheid and the struggle to establish democracy.

We need to increase the capacity; we need to improve performance so that we are more effective at lending that kind of support.

The matter of who governs Zimbabwe is a matter that is in the hands of the people of Zimbabwe. The matter of who governs the people of South Africa is in the hands of the people of South Africa.

The matter of social security and these grants is to help to address the levels of poverty in the country.

We would take the same position as the majority of the world about this, including this issue where Prime Minister [Ariel] Sharon made a commitment to pull Israeli troops out of Gaza.

The matter of people being attracted to other countries is a permanent problem in my view, it doesn't only face South Africa. A whole lot of countries in the world are faced with this problem.

We would continue to handle our relations with the rest of the Continent with that kind of sensitivity.

We are improving the entirety of the system. You have got to make the grants available.

Of course we run a very open economy, and therefore what happens in the rest of the world, in economic terms, obviously has an impact on us.

Certainly the Government has tried to handle the matter of our relations with the rest of the Continent in a very sensitive manner.

We are very keen to see that nobody gets ill-treated or abused.

We were asked to host the Pan African Parliament and we agreed to this.

You have to make sure that [grants] reach people by virtue of their Identity Documents.

A democratic government in South Africa is not a threat to white people.

While the WTO negotiations will continue, there are other trade negotiations of a bilateral nature, which among other things, should help to open up these markets for South African products.

There is a very long list of parties in this year's election, some of the parties I have never heard of.

Part of the issue around communal land, which became a matter of controversy, is that we are saying that this land must go back to communities. Not chiefs and traditional leaders.

I must say also, that we are not talking just about foreign investors.

Clearly, we are very, very concerned about the situation, for instance, that has been going on in Gaza.

The engagements with the International Investment Council have developed in a very interesting way. It is, again, the point I raised at the beginning.

We want the National Intelligence, we want the Police, we want the Scorpions, any other institutions, the tax people, and so on, the totality of these bodies, to get together.

I have absolutely no problem with the press criticising policies and the things that we do, the things that we say.

If you look at government policy generally, what government tries to do in all instances is to make sure that we take care of all elements that might relate to a particular issue.