    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [March 26, 1998]
    [Pages 442-444]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Address to the Parliament of South Africa in Cape Town
    March 26, 1998

        Thank you very much, Premier Molefe, for
    that fine introduction. Mr. President, Deputy
    President Mbeki, Madam Speaker, Mr. Chairman of the National Council of
    Provinces, Members of Parliament, ladies and
    gentlemen, I am deeply honored to be the first American President ever
    to visit South Africa and even more honored to stand before this
    Parliament to address a South Africa truly free and democratic at last.
        Joining my wife and me on this tour of Africa, and especially here,
    are many Members of our Congress and distinguished members of my Cabinet
    and administration, men and women who supported the struggle for a free
    South Africa, leaders of the American business community now awakening
    to the promise and potential of South Africa, people of all different
    background and beliefs.
        Among them, however, are members of the Congressional Black Caucus
    and African-American members of my government. It is especially
    important for them to be here because it was not so long ago in the long
    span of human history that their ancestors were uprooted from this
    continent and sold into slavery in the United States. But now they
    return to Africa as leaders of the United States. Today they sit
    alongside the leaders of the new South Africa, united in the powerful
    poetry of justice
        As I look out at all of you, I see our common promise. Two centuries
    ago, the courage and imagination that created the United States and the
    principles that are enshrined in our Constitution inspired men and women
    without a voice, across the world, to believe that one day they too
    could have a government of the people, by the people, and for the
    people.
        Now, the courage and imagination that created the new South Africa
    and the principles that guide your Constitution inspire all of us to be
    animated by the belief that one day humanity all the world over can at
    last be released from the bonds of hatred and bigotry.
        It is tempting for Americans of all backgrounds, I think, perhaps to
    see too many similarities in the stories of our two countries, because
    sometimes similarities which appear to be profound are in fact
    superficial. And they can obscure the unique and complex struggle that
    South Africa has made to shed the chains of its past for a brighter
    tomorrow.
        Nonetheless, in important ways, our paths do converge by a vision of
    real multiracial democracy bound together by healing and hope, renewal
    and redemption. Therefore I came here to say simply this: Let us work
    with each other; let us learn from each other to turn the hope we now
    share into a history that all of us can be proud of.
        Mr. President, for millions upon millions
    of Americans, South Africa's story is embodied by your heroic sacrifice
    and your breathtaking walk ``out of the darkness and into the glorious
    light.'' But you are always the first to say that the real heroes of
    South Africa's transformation are its people, who first walked away from
    the past and now move with determination, patience, and courage toward a
    new day and a new millennium.
        We rejoice at what you have already accomplished. We seek to be your
    partners and your

    [[Page 443]]

    true friends in the work that lies ahead: overcoming the lingering
    legacy of apartheid, seizing the promise of your rich land and your
    gifted people.
        From our own 220-year experience with democracy we know that real
    progress requires, in the memorable phrase of Max Weber, ``the long and
    slow-boring of hard boards.'' We know that democracy is always a work
    still in the making, a march toward what our own Founders called a more
    perfect Union.
        You have every reason to be hopeful. South Africa was reborn, after
    all, just 4 years ago. In the short time since, you've worked hard to
    deepen your democracy, to spread prosperity, to educate all your people,
    and to strengthen the hand of justice. The promise before you is
    immense: a people unshackled, free to give full expression to their
    energy, intellect, and creativity; a nation embraced by the world, whose
    success is important to all our futures.
        America has a profound and pragmatic stake in your success; an
    economic stake because we, like you, need strong partners to build
    prosperity; a strategic stake because of 21st century threats to our
    common security, from terrorism, from international crime and drug
    trafficking, from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, from
    the spread of deadly disease and the degradation of our common
    environment. These perils do not stop at any nation's borders. And we
    have a moral stake, because in overcoming your past you offer a powerful
    example to people who are torn by their own divisions in all parts of
    this Earth. Simply put, America wants a strong South Africa; America
    needs a strong South Africa. And we are determined to work with you as
    you build a strong South Africa.
        In the first 4 years of your freedom, it has been our privilege to
    support your transition with aid and assistance. Now, as the new South
    Africa emerges, we seek a genuine partnership based on mutual respect
    and mutual reward. Like all partners, we cannot agree on everything.
    Sometimes our interests and our views diverge, but that is true even in
    family partnerships. [Laughter]
        Nonetheless, I am convinced, we agree on most things and on the
    important things because we share the same basic values: a commitment to
    democracy and to peace, a commitment to open markets, a commitment to
    give all our people the tools they need to succeed in the modern world,
    a commitment to make elemental human rights the birth right of every
    single child.
        Over the past 4 years, we put the building blocks of our partnership
    in place, starting with the Binational Commission, headed by Deputy
    President Mbeki and our Vice President Al
    Gore. This remarkable effort has given
    high-level energy to critical projects, from energy to education, from
    business development to science and technology, cutting through redtape,
    turning good words into concrete deeds. We are deeply indebted to you,
    Mr. Mbeki, for your outstanding leadership, and
    we thank you for it.
        The BNC brings to life what I believe you call ``Masihlangane,'' the
    act of building together. As we look toward the future, we will seek to
    build together new partnerships in trade and investment through
    incentives such as OPEC's new Africa Opportunity Fund, already
    supporting two projects here in South Africa in transportation and
    telecommunications.
        We will seek to expand joint efforts to combat the grave threat of
    domestic and international crime through our new FBI and customs and
    immigration offices here in South Africa. We will seek to strengthen our
    cooperation around the world, for already South Africa's leadership in
    extending the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and creating an Africa
    nuclear-free zone have made all our children's futures more secure.
        I also hope we can build together to meet the persistent problems
    and fulfill the remarkable promise of the African continent. Yes, Africa
    remains the world's greatest development challenge, still plagued in
    places by poverty, malnutrition, disease, illiteracy, and unemployment.
    Yes, terrible conflicts continue to tear at the heart of the continent,
    as I saw yesterday in Rwanda. But from Cape Town to Kampala, from Dar es
    Salaam to Dakar, democracy is gaining strength; business is growing;
    peace is making progress. We are seeing what Deputy President Mbeki has
    called an African renaissance.
        In coming to Africa, my motive in part was to help the American
    people see the new Africa with new eyes and to focus our own efforts on
    new policies suited to the new reality. It used to be when American
    policy makers thought of Africa at all, they would ask, what can we do
    for Africa, or whatever can we do about Africa? Those were the wrong
    questions.

    [[Page 444]]

    The right question today is, what can we do with Africa?
        Throughout this trip I've been talking about ideas we want to
    develop with our African partners to benefit all our people: ideas to
    improve our children's education through training and technology; to
    ensure that none of our children are hungry or without good health care;
    to build impartial, credible, and effective justice systems; to
    strengthen the foundations of civil society and deepen democracy; to
    build strong economics from the top down and from the grassroots up; to
    prevent conflict from erupting and to stop it quickly if it does.
        Each of these efforts has a distinct mission, but all share a common
    approach: to help the African people help themselves to become better
    equipped, not only to dream their own dreams but, at long last, to make
    those dreams come true. Yesterday in Entebbe we took an important step
    forward. There, with leaders from eastern and central Africa, we pledged
    to work together to build a future in which the doors of opportunity are
    open to all and countries move from the margins to the mainstream of the
    global economy to strengthen democracy and respect for human rights in
    all nations, to banish genocide from the region and this continent so
    that every African child can grow up in safety and peace.
        As Africa grows strong, America grows stronger through prosperous
    consumers on this continent and new African products brought to our
    markets, through new partners to fight and find solutions to common
    problems from the spread of AIDS and malaria to the greenhouse gases
    that are changing our climate, and most of all, through the incalculable
    benefit of new ideas, new energy, new passion from the minds and hearts
    of the people charting their own future on this continent. Yes, Africa
    still needs the world, but more that ever it is equally true that the
    world needs Africa.
        Members of Parliament, ladies and gentlemen, at the dawn of the 21st
    century we have a remarkable opportunity to leave behind this century's
    darkest moments while fulfilling its most brilliant possibilities, not
    just in South Africa, nor just in America, but in all the world. I come
    to this conviction well aware of the obstacles that lie in the path.
    From Bosnia to the Middle East, from Northern Ireland to the Great Lakes
    region of Africa, we have seen the terrible price people pay when they
    insist on fighting and killing and keeping down their neighbors. For all
    the wonders of the modern world, we are still bedeviled by notions that
    our racial, ethnic, tribal, and religious differences are somehow more
    important that our common humanity, that we can only lift ourselves up
    if we have someone to look down on. But then I look around this hall.
    There is every conceivable difference, on the surface, among the
    Americans and the South Africans in this great Hall of Freedom.
    Different races, different religions, different native tongues, but
    underneath, the same hopes, the same dreams, the same values. We all
    cherish family and faith, work and community, freedom and
    responsibility. We all want our children to grow up in a world where
    their talents are matched by their opportunities. And we all have come
    to believe that our countries will be stronger and our futures will be
    brighter as we let go of our hatreds and our fears and as we realize
    that what we have in common really does matter far more than our
    differences.
        The preamble to your Constitution says, ``South Africa belongs to
    all who live in it, united in our diversity.'' In the context of your
    own history and the experience of the world in this century, those
    simple words are a bold clarion call to the future, an affirmation of
    humanity at its best, an assurance that those who build can triumph over
    those who tear down, that truly, the peacemakers are blessed, and they
    shall inherit the Earth.
        Thank you, and God bless the new South Africa.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:45 p.m. in the Chamber of the House of
    Assembly. In his remarks, he referred to Premier Popo Molefe of the
    North-West Province; President Nelson Mandela and Deputy President Thabo
    Mbeki of South Africa; Frene Ginwala, Speaker of the House; and Premier
    Patrick Lekota, Free State Province, and Chair, National Council of
    Provinces. The President also referred to the U.S.-South Africa
    Binational Commission (BNC).