Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Introduction
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- I THE CHANGING COMMONWEALTH
- II DEMOCRACY
- III THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE MAKING OF THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA
- IV SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
- V DEVELOPMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN AFRICA
- VI NIGERIA IN TRANSITION
- VII PEACE AND SECURITY IN A PLURALISTIC WORLD
- VIII TOWARDS A COMMON HUMANITY
- NOTES TO THE TEXT
- ANNEXES I Basic Data on Commonwealth Member Countries
- ANNEXES II Map of the Commonwealth
- ANNEXES III Commonwealth Membership of Regional Organisations
- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
- BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
- INDEX
III - THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE MAKING OF THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Introduction
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- I THE CHANGING COMMONWEALTH
- II DEMOCRACY
- III THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE MAKING OF THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA
- IV SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
- V DEVELOPMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN AFRICA
- VI NIGERIA IN TRANSITION
- VII PEACE AND SECURITY IN A PLURALISTIC WORLD
- VIII TOWARDS A COMMON HUMANITY
- NOTES TO THE TEXT
- ANNEXES I Basic Data on Commonwealth Member Countries
- ANNEXES II Map of the Commonwealth
- ANNEXES III Commonwealth Membership of Regional Organisations
- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
- BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
- INDEX
Summary
Dinner for Nelson Mandela
Commonwealth House, London, Britain
3 July 1990
At his first official function after taking office as Secretary-General—dinner for a recently released prisoner, Nelson Mandela, to meet UK-based industrialists and financiers—he urges the international business community to “stand ready to join a post-apartheid South Africa in a partnership for development and democracy” …
Let me begin by saying how honoured and delighted I am that you have all been able to come here this evening. In saying this, I do not intend my words in any pro forma sense. As many of you will probably know, I formally assumed office as Commonwealth Secretary-General only two days ago. This dinner in honour of Mr Nelson Mandela is therefore literally my first public act. And it is particularly right and fitting that it should be so.
If the Commonwealth has a leitmotif; if, as it were, the Commonwealth has a peculiarity which sets it apart, it is surely its inevitable stand on the racial question, wherever and however it may rear its head. The Commonwealth, as this gathering needs no reminding, has fought racism, especially in Southern Africa, with a tenacity and resolve unparalleled by any other comparable international organisation. And if there is one man who by the example of his life, has drawn out the poetry and dignity inherent in the cause of multiracialism, that man is Nelson Mandela. And to begin my Secretary-Generalship with an opportunity to honour this man in however small a token, is, for me, a singular pleasure.
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- The Missing HeadlinesSelected Speeches, pp. 143 - 188Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 1997