Thabo Mbeki Quotations

If you sit in a position where decisions that you take would have a serious effect on people, you can't ignore a lot of experience around the world which says this drug has these negative effects.

South Africa was to evolve into the most pernicious example of the criminal practise of colonial and white minority domination.

I get a sense that we've all been educated into one school of thought. I'm not surprised at all to find among the overwhelming majority of scientists, are people who would hold one particular view because that's all they're exposed to.

I think that probably the most important thing about our education was that it taught us to question even those things we thought we knew.

Together we have travelled a long road to be where we are today. This has been a road of struggle against colonial and apartheid oppression.

Many of our own people here in this country do not ask about computers, telephones and television sets. They ask - when will we get a road to our village.

South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.

The poor prey on one another because their lives offer no hope and communicate the tragic message to these human beings that they have no possibility to attain a decent standard of living.

We are not being arrogant or complacent when we are said that our country, as a united nation, has never in its entire history, enjoyed such a confluence of encouraging possibilities.

We will continue to count on your unwavering support and commitment to working with leaders of our continent in bringing about the desired renaissance of Africa.

I don't imagine Heads of Government would ever be able to say I'm not an economist therefore I can't take decisions on matters of the economy; I'm not a soldier I can't take decisions on matters of defence; I'm not an educationist so I can't take decisions about education.

Those who oppressed us described us as the Dark Continent!

One of the things that became clear, and which was actually rather disturbing, was the fact that there was a view which was being expressed by people whose scientific credentials you can't question

The concern around probable questions, which in a sense have been hidden, will grow around the world and the matter is critical, the reason we are doing all this is so we can respond correctly to what is reported to be a major catastrophe on the African continent.

As a consequence of the victories we have registered during our first ten years of freedom, we have laid a firm foundation for the new advances we must and will make during the next decade.

We've had a long wrangle with the pharmaceutical industry about parallel imports, and what we were saying is we want to make medicines and drugs as affordable as a possible to what is largely a poor population.

It's very worrying at this time in the world that any point of view should be prohibited, that's banned, there are heretics that should be burned at the stake.

When will the day come that our dignity will be fully restored, when the purpose of our lives will no longer be merely to survive until the sun rises tomorrow!

I say that why don't we bring all points of view. Sit around a table and discuss this evidence, and produce evidence as it may be, and let's see what the outcome is, which is why we are having this International panel which we are all talking about.

The people of Zimbabwe have a responsibility to ensure that the government that they elected behaves properly.

I think the Internet is absolutely extraordinary. It's very, very useful and I think one of the things we've got to do is make sure that the African continent gets on to that information super highway.

That surely must be a concern to anyone who decides this drug must be given to stop transmissions, again from mother to child, which is extremely costly and must be taken into account.

One of the matters that must be addressed is that Rwanda and Uganda have to leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We're also supporting processes to ensure that the political dialogue among the Congolese themselves takes place so that the people there can decide their future.

It wouldn't sit easily on one's conscience that you had been warned and there could be danger, but nevertheless you went ahead and said let's dispense these drugs.

Well, because lots of questions had been raised about the toxicity of the drug, which is very serious.

A matter that seems to be very clear in terms of the alternative view, is what do you expect to happen in Africa with regard to immune systems, where people are poor, subject to repeat infections and all of that. Surely you would expect their immune systems to collapse.

What all of us have said on the continent is the actual African experience over the last 40 years shows that where you don't have democracy, where you've got military governments, where you've got civil conflict, where you've got no observation of the rule of law, then all of these things need to be addressed as a basis for development.

The poor of the world stand at the gates of comfortable mansions occupied by each and every king and queen or president or prime minister privileged to attend this unique meeting,

China will emerge as one of the principal partners of South Africa...and we agreed that given the scope and depth of relations that will develop, we will establish a joint commission to incorporate all of these elements,

gives hopes to the billions of people across the world.

Our political relations can only go from strength to strength,

You and your administration have treated us with dignity, whatever our differences on specific matters, with sensitivity to our problems in an unwavering commitment to help us resolve these,

We will act together to build a South Africa that truly belongs to all who live in it, both black and white.

We are convinced that the risen masses must stand at the heart and in the vanguard of the great historic process to eradicate the legacy of slavery, colonialism, apartheid and neo-colonialism.

The government continues to function properly and we continue to work as government,

There is no substance to the allegations that there is any hesitation on the part of our government to confront the challenge of HIV-AIDS,

Throwing money at African governments is not the answer,

We want a peaceful resolution. We would not want to see any kind of war in the Middle East because it would be disastrous for Africa.

Billions would rebel in response to what they consider legitimate right of the poor that has been unjustly deferred by the rich (nations).

Everybody in the region is interested to assist in the process of finding a solution to that conflict,

These challenges require of us not just standard responses, but urgent and extraordinary interventions that will ensure that the benefits of the current scientific and technological advances are shared by everyone, including those in the most remote and isolated villages of the world,

savage principle of the survival of the fittest.

And therefore it's a matter that we discussed, and I am quite sure that the Zimbabwe government will take the necessary steps to have that matter addressed,

This intervention shows that it's possible to go into the least-developed areas -- to the rural people -- and bring them into the modern era.

They've directed us to move ahead first with our program of reconciliation and development, so the goal for a better life for all is achieved sooner rather than later.

They (the people) put us in positions of power so that they should thrive and not so that we should seek to lighten the burden of our ponderous titles by transforming ourselves from elected and accountable politicians into self-serving tycoons,

This particular controversy has not impacted on government whatsoever.

No longer will we be an object of fascination for others, who would consider us a strange and an estranged segment of humanity.

The instability has gone on for far too long. The levels of poverty and conflict are increasing, and if you add to that a fraudulent election, it has to be avoided,

I must say that for us this represents one of the most positive developments in a global situation that otherwise seems to be dominated by many negative developments,

Clearly, we cannot allow such a critical part of African history to die, because such a death would mean erasing an important link to our glorious past,

I am very pleased with the particular focus he is paying to South Africa and to the African continent, generally,

Science is always inquiring.

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.

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

The reports from the scientific world are that there is a very severe and escalating impact of HIV and AIDS in South Africa, and from what I have read, it is assuming particular, distinct characteristics, which, for instance, were atypical of how this phenomenon had developed in the States. This meant that we must look at what it is that results in all of this, specific to our country.

Your medical documents will say: acquired immune deficiency syndrome, that is AIDS, which means that you have got this challenge of immune deficiency. All right, what causes immune deficiency? HIV? All right, is that all that causes immune deficiency? And your medical textbooks would say no, there are other things that will cause acquired immune deficiency. There is also a genetic immune deficiency, a different phenomenon.

Pope Benedict XVI assumes leadership at a critical time in which the world's collective wisdom and leadership including that of the religious community is most important to face up to challenges of deepening poverty and under-development afflicting many people of the world.

In Africa you have space...there a profound sense of space here, space and sky

The issue of racism and racial prejudice is very, very difficult to discuss. It is difficult to discuss the history of apartheid - many people have made the observation that it is very, very difficult to find anybody in South Africa who ever supported apartheid: because everybody was opposed to that; it was against our will and so on.

I know there is a lot of concern about plans that Iran might have to develop nuclear weapons which arises from positions that Iran took in the past when in fact it did not disclose things to the IAEA. And therefore the conclusion that the reason that they are refusing to do it is because they are hiding something - I can understand that.

I am sure it would not be in the long-term interest of China, which would continue to depend on these African resources for a very long time, to see the emergence of any sense of hostility, animosity, tension between itself and the African continent.

China surely must be interested in a more stable, non-antagonistic relationship with the African continent precisely because of its own needs and therefore has to say: in our own interest, as China, it is necessary that we participate in the process of development of the African continent.

It is difficult to discuss history, and more difficult to talk about now, today, even simple things.

It is critically important that Iran should not develop nuclear weapons. And that the necessary interventions need to be made by the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure that, indeed, that does not happen, in the context of any nuclear generation of power or research or whatever, in Iran.

For the first time in human history, society has the capacity, the knowledge and the resources to eradicate poverty

I am sure it is in the medical textbooks, there are many things that cause immune deficiency and you will find therefore in the South African HIV and AIDS programme, that it will say that part of what we have got to do is to make sure that our health infrastructure, our health system is able to deal adequately with all of the illnesses that are a consequence of AIDS.

It is also important to respect the fact that Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), which Treaty spells out the rights and obligations of signatories to the Treaty, and therefore that we cannot deny Iran the rights due to it as a signatory of the NPT.

It is quite easy to understand what China would need from the African continent with regard to its own economy. It will be raw materials, oil, and a market for manufactured goods. It is not difficult to understand that, and it is perfectly legitimate, there is nothing wrong with that.

As we mourn President Mandela’s passing we must ask ourselves the fundamental question - what shall we do to respond to the tasks of building a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa, a people-centred society free of hunger, poverty, disease and inequality, as well as Africa’s renaissance, to whose attainment President Nelson Mandela dedicated his whole life?

If we only said safe sex, use a condom, we won't stop the spread of AIDS in this country.

How many murders are committed in Gauteng, or in the Western Cape, in a month? A week? A day? An hour? But of course we are not allowed to know for sure. In close and direct imitation of his apartheid models, Selebi ensures that no statistics about crime may be published regularly in the press.

We do not accept that human society should be constructed on the basis of a savage principle of the survival of the fittest

Whoever we may be, whatever our immediate interest, however much we carry baggage from our past, however much we have been caught by the fashion of cynicism and loss of faith in the capacity of the people, let us err today and say - nothing can stop us now!

Does HIV cause AIDS? Can a virus cause a syndrome? How? It can't, because a syndrome is a group of diseases resulting from acquired immune deficiency.

None dare challenge me when i say i am an Afrikan.

You cannot just depend on the market, because the market will say: China needs oil; China needs coal; China needs whatever, and Africa has got all these things in abundance. And we go there and get them, and the more we develop the Chinese economy, the larger the manufacturing is, the more we need global markets - sell it to the Africans which indeed might very well destroy whatever infant industries are trying to develop on the continent. That is what the market would do.

A global human society, characterised by islands of wealth, surrounded by a sea of poverty, is unsustainable

We should never become despondent because the weather is bad, nor should we turn triumphalist because the sun shines.

As Africans, we need to share common recognition that all of us stand to lose if we fail to transform our continent.

If you read a textbook it will tell you, these are the things, for instance, on the African continent that would contribute to immune deficiency: the various tropical diseases, which because of poor health infrastructure, poor nutrition, general levels of poverty, don't get treated; syphilis, untreated or not properly treated (which as I hear is a big problem, when it is treated and the symptoms disappear, but, in fact, it is not cured and incubates there) that will impact on the immune system. So you have got to deal with these things.

Our experience over the last 20 years has shown that indeed people must themselves become their own liberators. You cannot wait for somebody else to come and rescue you.

I am an African. I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land.

Gloom and despondency have never defeated adversity. Trying times need courage and resilience. Our strength as a people is not tested during the best of times,

The (energy) sector that you represent is central to global economic and social development and, therefore, has enormous possibilities to contribute to an atmosphere of optimism affecting all countries, especially the developing countries,

The matter rests with all of us gathered here,