S. African Ambassador- Interaction will enhance ties
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Gül Demir - Niki Gamm
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 02, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - The relationship between South Africa and Turkey is "sound," but could be enhanced, said South African Ambassador to Turkey Tebogo Seokolo, who urged the continuation of efforts to encourage business and tourism between the two countries.
"I think the relationship is sound, but we can still do more to increase trade and people-to-people relationships," Seokolo told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review, noting that both countries occupy special places in their respective regions. "I’m quite happy with the level of interaction in cultural relations, but we can also increase the interaction among members of Parliament and expand that relationship with more contact at the municipal level."
University exchanges are another area where Seokolo sees promise for strengthened ties between his country and Turkey. "I know most Turks want to go elsewhere, but we do have very good universities," he said. "They can study English and get a different perspective on the world Ğ on a different culture, a different politics, a different continent Ğ while enjoying the same quality of life."
With South Africa set to host the World Cup 2010 from June 11 to July 11 next year, the two football-loving countries have all the more reason to draw closer. Though June is technically winter in the African country, the weather can still be very agreeable at that time of year, much like fall in Turkey. Seokolo said that thousands of fans are expected to come to South Africa for the sporting event. "When the International Federation of Football Associations [FIFA] met in 2004 in South Africa, the organization laid out the conditions for the World Cup Ğ the capacity to hold such a big event, the political will and support, the level of infrastructure," the ambassador said. "I think we can say that we have fulfilled all these requirements. In the light of the economic crisis, we had to announce that construction of the stadiums would not quite be complete at the end of this year, but this won’t affect football fans traveling to South Africa. I take this opportunity to [invite] our Turkish friends and many, many thousands of other football fans to go to South Africa."
Like Turks, who voted in local elections at the end of March, South Africans have recently gone to the ballot box too, voting in the fourth election held in the country since the end of apartheid in 1994.
"Fifteen years ago, the new South Africa was born; millions of black and white South Africans for the first time participated together in electing the government of their choice," Seokolo said. "Since then, we’ve seen many of our people, especially black South Africans who were not part of the [previous] political and economic system, being included. They have been able to choose a government that is reflective of the will of the majority of the people. That is a major achievement."
General elections
Last week’s election drew the highest number of voters in South African history, the ambassador said. "With each election since 1994, we’ve seen the majority of South Africans, young and old, black and white, increasing their enthusiasm for and their participation in the democratic process."
The constitution South African adopted in 1996 was "hailed as one of the best in the world," Seokolo said. "It gave the people of South Africa, regardless of the color of their skin or their orientation, the same rights Ğ equal rights. Independent institutions like the Constitutional Court, the Human Rights Commission and the Gender Commission were created and are allowed to function freely without any interference by the government Ğ another major achievement."
In the past, Seokolo said, the majority of his country’s citizens were unable to participate fully in South Africa’s economy; most lived in uninhabitable dwellings, lacked decent work and access to health care and were unable to receive the quality of education needed to improve their situation. "Since 1994, I think we have made significant progress on that front," he said, noting that 95 percent of South Africans now live within five kilometers of a health facility and that more than 10 million of his countrymen and women have benefited from government housing subsidies. "There’s a long way to go, but I think that the foundation has been laid," Seokolo said. "Income poverty has been reduced quite significantly, but we are still working hard to improve conditions for the people. We are thinking of increasing social benefits and job placements and have introduced social plans to assist the aged and disabled as well as the less fortunate. So I think we’ve done quite well in the past 15 years."
Acknowledging that 15 years is a short period of time, Seokolo said, "many things have [already] been fixed," and expressed optimism about what could be done in the future. "As we move with increasing speed, we’ll be able to fix the socio-economic needs of the people," he said. "The government has been given a new mandate, a mandate to work with haste to address the socio-economic challenges we have."
Asked how South African youth view the future, the ambassador said: "The future for young people in South Africa is bright. Speaking from my own experience, we were fortunate to be inducted into South African elective political life. As young people, we had to fight this evil system of apartheid and we developed a political majority, but the young generation now is very politically conscious because of our history."
Noting that many of the voters in the recent election were young people, Seokolo added: "When I first voted in 1994, [young people] were very far away from all this. The idea of apartheid is not as sharp as it once was, but we have to continue that [political] activity in South Africa among young people. The government is providing opportunities for youth because one of the penalties that apartheid afflicted on us was to deprive young people of a quality education. That is a priority of this government as it looks to the future."
South Africa and the foreign media
During the run up to the recent election, reports in the foreign media seemed to focus on South Africa’s many opposition parties and the possible loss of the governing African National Congress’ two-thirds majority. Seokolo said he found the reports that spoke of the ANC’s domination of South African politics as if it were a threat to democracy strange, because, he says, giving people a choice is what democracy is all about Ğ and if they want to give a two-thirds majority to one party, then that is their right. The ambassador added that the ruling party has had the same majority for the last 15 years and that there has never been a transitional change or any threat to democracy in South Africa.
"I remember in 1994, when we had the first election in South Africa, there was similar media coverage that predicted a backlash, a civil war," Seokolo said. "We know what happened: We had the most peaceful election. In 1999, when Mandela stepped down, again there was speculation about what would happen, about whether this rainbow nation would disintegrate. We all know that in 2004, nothing happened. And now we’ve had a lot of talk about whether or not the ANC would win a two-thirds majority and if they were going to change the constitution. My question is what would it take for people to accept that our democracy is durable, that it is like any other democracy? It may not be as perfect as we would like it to be, but where is [democracy] perfect?"
Coming from a country where race was historically such a key problem, Seokolo said that South Africans saw U.S. President Barack Obama’s election as another victory in the same struggle. "We know very well how it is to be discriminated against based on the color of your skin; that is why we hosted the very first UN conference on racism in 2001. We think we have something to contribute to the world based on our own experience," he said. "We said never again; there should be no discrimination ever again. So when we saw Barack Obama being elected president of the United States, of course we saw this as a continuation of the struggle against discrimination and as a victory for the world. We think Obama’s victory will contribute to eliminating all forms of discrimination."
Up close and personal with the ambassador
Before coming to Turkey last year, Seokolo, 39, was the chief director of intergovernmental and international relations for the Office of the Premier. He met his wife, Moipone, through his involvement in politics: She was visiting a cousin who was the party leader in a district where Seokolo was attending a meeting. They now have a son, Tshwaragano, 13, who is attending Bilkent University, and a daughter, Nalcdi, who is two-and-half years old.
Prior to becoming his country’s ambassador to Turkey, Seokolo and his family had never been to this country. "All we knew about Turkey was what we read about it in the literature," he said. "When we arrived, we were overwhelmed by the very warm people, the very rich culture, the very rich history and the very beautiful country. We’ve been to several places, but there is still so much to see. We’re quite impressed." In his free time, the ambassador enjoys reading and listening to jazz Ğ and, of course, football. His favorite books are political ones, literature and autobiographies, and his reading has led him to draw parallels between the most famous leaders of Turkey and South Africa.
"Every time, I go back to Mandela. His is a genuine book that tells us where we are coming from," Seokolo said. "I’ve also read about Atatürk and I think he was quite an inspiring leader. I’ve observed the amount of support he has in Turkey and the inspiration he is. And I look at how Mandela is observed and I see some parallels there."
University exchanges are another area where Seokolo sees promise for strengthened ties between his country and Turkey. "I know most Turks want to go elsewhere, but we do have very good universities," he said. "They can study English and get a different perspective on the world Ğ on a different culture, a different politics, a different continent Ğ while enjoying the same quality of life."
With South Africa set to host the World Cup 2010 from June 11 to July 11 next year, the two football-loving countries have all the more reason to draw closer. Though June is technically winter in the African country, the weather can still be very agreeable at that time of year, much like fall in Turkey. Seokolo said that thousands of fans are expected to come to South Africa for the sporting event. "When the International Federation of Football Associations [FIFA] met in 2004 in South Africa, the organization laid out the conditions for the World Cup Ğ the capacity to hold such a big event, the political will and support, the level of infrastructure," the ambassador said. "I think we can say that we have fulfilled all these requirements. In the light of the economic crisis, we had to announce that construction of the stadiums would not quite be complete at the end of this year, but this won’t affect football fans traveling to South Africa. I take this opportunity to [invite] our Turkish friends and many, many thousands of other football fans to go to South Africa."
Like Turks, who voted in local elections at the end of March, South Africans have recently gone to the ballot box too, voting in the fourth election held in the country since the end of apartheid in 1994.
"Fifteen years ago, the new South Africa was born; millions of black and white South Africans for the first time participated together in electing the government of their choice," Seokolo said. "Since then, we’ve seen many of our people, especially black South Africans who were not part of the [previous] political and economic system, being included. They have been able to choose a government that is reflective of the will of the majority of the people. That is a major achievement."
General elections
Last week’s election drew the highest number of voters in South African history, the ambassador said. "With each election since 1994, we’ve seen the majority of South Africans, young and old, black and white, increasing their enthusiasm for and their participation in the democratic process."
The constitution South African adopted in 1996 was "hailed as one of the best in the world," Seokolo said. "It gave the people of South Africa, regardless of the color of their skin or their orientation, the same rights Ğ equal rights. Independent institutions like the Constitutional Court, the Human Rights Commission and the Gender Commission were created and are allowed to function freely without any interference by the government Ğ another major achievement."
In the past, Seokolo said, the majority of his country’s citizens were unable to participate fully in South Africa’s economy; most lived in uninhabitable dwellings, lacked decent work and access to health care and were unable to receive the quality of education needed to improve their situation. "Since 1994, I think we have made significant progress on that front," he said, noting that 95 percent of South Africans now live within five kilometers of a health facility and that more than 10 million of his countrymen and women have benefited from government housing subsidies. "There’s a long way to go, but I think that the foundation has been laid," Seokolo said. "Income poverty has been reduced quite significantly, but we are still working hard to improve conditions for the people. We are thinking of increasing social benefits and job placements and have introduced social plans to assist the aged and disabled as well as the less fortunate. So I think we’ve done quite well in the past 15 years."
Acknowledging that 15 years is a short period of time, Seokolo said, "many things have [already] been fixed," and expressed optimism about what could be done in the future. "As we move with increasing speed, we’ll be able to fix the socio-economic needs of the people," he said. "The government has been given a new mandate, a mandate to work with haste to address the socio-economic challenges we have."
Asked how South African youth view the future, the ambassador said: "The future for young people in South Africa is bright. Speaking from my own experience, we were fortunate to be inducted into South African elective political life. As young people, we had to fight this evil system of apartheid and we developed a political majority, but the young generation now is very politically conscious because of our history."
Noting that many of the voters in the recent election were young people, Seokolo added: "When I first voted in 1994, [young people] were very far away from all this. The idea of apartheid is not as sharp as it once was, but we have to continue that [political] activity in South Africa among young people. The government is providing opportunities for youth because one of the penalties that apartheid afflicted on us was to deprive young people of a quality education. That is a priority of this government as it looks to the future."
South Africa and the foreign media
During the run up to the recent election, reports in the foreign media seemed to focus on South Africa’s many opposition parties and the possible loss of the governing African National Congress’ two-thirds majority. Seokolo said he found the reports that spoke of the ANC’s domination of South African politics as if it were a threat to democracy strange, because, he says, giving people a choice is what democracy is all about Ğ and if they want to give a two-thirds majority to one party, then that is their right. The ambassador added that the ruling party has had the same majority for the last 15 years and that there has never been a transitional change or any threat to democracy in South Africa.
"I remember in 1994, when we had the first election in South Africa, there was similar media coverage that predicted a backlash, a civil war," Seokolo said. "We know what happened: We had the most peaceful election. In 1999, when Mandela stepped down, again there was speculation about what would happen, about whether this rainbow nation would disintegrate. We all know that in 2004, nothing happened. And now we’ve had a lot of talk about whether or not the ANC would win a two-thirds majority and if they were going to change the constitution. My question is what would it take for people to accept that our democracy is durable, that it is like any other democracy? It may not be as perfect as we would like it to be, but where is [democracy] perfect?"
Coming from a country where race was historically such a key problem, Seokolo said that South Africans saw U.S. President Barack Obama’s election as another victory in the same struggle. "We know very well how it is to be discriminated against based on the color of your skin; that is why we hosted the very first UN conference on racism in 2001. We think we have something to contribute to the world based on our own experience," he said. "We said never again; there should be no discrimination ever again. So when we saw Barack Obama being elected president of the United States, of course we saw this as a continuation of the struggle against discrimination and as a victory for the world. We think Obama’s victory will contribute to eliminating all forms of discrimination."
Up close and personal with the ambassador
Before coming to Turkey last year, Seokolo, 39, was the chief director of intergovernmental and international relations for the Office of the Premier. He met his wife, Moipone, through his involvement in politics: She was visiting a cousin who was the party leader in a district where Seokolo was attending a meeting. They now have a son, Tshwaragano, 13, who is attending Bilkent University, and a daughter, Nalcdi, who is two-and-half years old.
Prior to becoming his country’s ambassador to Turkey, Seokolo and his family had never been to this country. "All we knew about Turkey was what we read about it in the literature," he said. "When we arrived, we were overwhelmed by the very warm people, the very rich culture, the very rich history and the very beautiful country. We’ve been to several places, but there is still so much to see. We’re quite impressed." In his free time, the ambassador enjoys reading and listening to jazz Ğ and, of course, football. His favorite books are political ones, literature and autobiographies, and his reading has led him to draw parallels between the most famous leaders of Turkey and South Africa.
"Every time, I go back to Mandela. His is a genuine book that tells us where we are coming from," Seokolo said. "I’ve also read about Atatürk and I think he was quite an inspiring leader. I’ve observed the amount of support he has in Turkey and the inspiration he is. And I look at how Mandela is observed and I see some parallels there."