Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu has announced that he intends to bow out of public life. He told a media briefing in Cape Town on Thursday that he intended to scale down his commitments after he turns 79 on October  7.
Instead of growing old gracefully at home with his family, too much of his time had been spent at airports and in hotels. "The time has now come to slow down, to sip rooibos tea with my beloved wife in the afternoons, to watch cricket and rugby and soccer and tennis, to travel to visit my children and
grandchildren, rather than to conferences and conventions and university campuses," he said. He would no longer be available for media interviews.
"As Madiba said on his retirement: 'Don't me, I'll call you'," he said. Tutu was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1984. He served as Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996 and chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Remarks by Ambassador Brooke D. Anderson, U.S. Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs, at a General Assembly Meeting to Celebrate Nelson Mandela International Day, July 16, 2010

Good morning.  It’s a great honor to be here today to offer a few words about what Nelson Mandela means to my country and to people everywhere.

Nelson Mandela is a great man who faced one of the greatest evils of our time.  Apartheid was twisted and it was grotesque.  It used the trappings of democracy to try to conceal the reality of racist tyranny.  It invoked the teachings of pseudo-science to try to rationalize the brutality of white supremacy.  It deployed the preachings of false faith to try to justify the underlying malice of oppression.  “Ah, but your land is beautiful,” wrote the South African novelist Alan Paton—and a land of the greatest beauty was scarred by a dictatorship of the greatest cruelty.

Looking back at the sheer reach and perversity of the apartheid regime reminds us of the magnitude of South Africa’s victory.  Surely few could have imagined that apartheid’s overlords would have relinquished power voluntarily and peacefully.  Nelson Mandela understood the power of words to change minds and the power of peaceful deeds to open hearts.  He did not overthrow apartheid by force of arms.  He overthrew it by force of example.  He was apartheid’s captive but never its prisoner.  He never let his jailers make him doubt his own humanity, and he never let himself doubt their own humanity.  We should not minimize the impact of global isolation, moral reproach, and economic sanctions—but in the final analysis, apartheid collapsed because Mandela convinced his jailers to surrender the key.

Mandela’s ability to persuade South Africa’s apartheid government to release their grip on power was rooted in his astonishing capacity to quiet the fears of the white minority even as he insisted on the rights of the black majority—to make it possible for the old rulers to become ordinary citizens and for the nation to stand together elated in long lines to cast their first democratic ballots.  What makes Mandela more than just a president, more than just the hero of a liberation struggle, is his ability to remember yesterday while focusing on tomorrow—to offer the knowing and embracing forgiveness that transforms the oppressor and lifts up the oppressed.

We live today in an era marred by those who preach division, in lands too often torn by those who see our differences as pretexts for strife rather than sources of strength.  But in our unredeemed world, Nelson Mandela continues to embody the politics of truth and reconciliation—not amnesia, not amnesty without reckoning, but an unsparing realization that the humanity all of us share can help us transcend the sins that we commit.  We are imperfect creatures; we are capable of immense and unexpected grace as well as vast and unimaginable malice.  And so South Africa, once the world’s epitome of racism, has now become its paragon of reconciliation.

Sometimes it takes great leaders to remind us of the truths we hold to be self-evident.  Nelson Mandela is such a leader, and we are fortunate to walk the earth in his days.  We hope that this day in his honor will remind all our citizens of his towering, healing, and joyful example.  When he won his country’s first free election on May 2, 1994, President-elect Mandela called the birth of democracy in South Africa “a small miracle.”  It was indeed a miracle, but there was nothing small about it.  For that great gift, on behalf of the United States, let me simply say: Madiba, we thank you.

Thank you.  

 

United States Mission to the United Nations
Office of Press and Public Diplomacy
140 E 45th Street, New York, NY 10017
212-415-4050
www.usun.state.gov

Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), a leading global telecoms provider, has reached a deal with two major shareholders of Dimension Data that will see NTT acquiring the JSE-listed company for approximately £2.1-billion (about R24.3-billion).
NTT's offer has secured the support of the boards of both the companies, as well as South Africa's Venfin DD Holdings and Allan Gray, who collectively own 52% of Dimension Data's issued shares.
New standards, cloud computing
NTT president and CEO Satoshi Miura said that by leveraging the complementary strengths of both companies, they would be able to provide global, end-to-end, high-quality ICT services.
"Dimension Data and NTT share the common vision to create new services and values to succeed in the coming age of cloud computing," he said. "Our combined strength will allow us to accelerate execution of our strategies and achieve our shared vision."
Dimension Data executive chairman Jeremy Ord said that together, NTT and Dimension Data would define "a new industry standard" for IT service quality, delivery, and support.
"NTT's network capabilities and assets coupled with Dimension Data's global system integrator expertise skills create an incredible powerful and unprecedented combination of capabilities and skills," he said.
"The combined companies will hold a strong competitive position serving global corporations [that are] moving to managed infrastructure services and cloud computing."
Shared vision, entrepreneurial culture
Ord added that he believed the two companies had a shared vision on how the market would evolve, and the combination of the two's resources would allow them to accelerate their medium- and long-term strategies.
Dimension Data CEO Brett Dawson said that NTT recognised the value of Dimension Data's entrepreneurial culture and business model, adding that the company's operational processes, brands and methodologies would all remain.
"NTT provides a world-class IT and communications platform globally while Dimension Data brings expertise and capabilities in specialist managed IT infrastructure and services," he said.
"We are very excited to begin collaborating with NTT to expand and deliver this joint value to our clients."
SAinfo reporter

South Africa scored nine out of 10 for its organisation of the 2010 World Cup.

"Nobody in the world is perfect, but the organisation of this first World Cup in Africa and in South Africa was pretty close," Fifa president Sepp Blatter told a 2010 World Cup wrap-up press conference in Johannesburg on Monday.

"I was more than satisfied and happy with the smooth running of the tournament. It was a huge success for both South Africa and the continent of Africa. 

They can be proud of their achievements. They (South Africa and Africa) showed they can organise such an event successfully.

"It was a question of trust and confidence. We as Fifa showed that and South Africa responded brilliantly."

Blatter was full of praise for the 2010 Organising Committee, its chairman Irvin Khoza and CEO Danny Jordaan.

The Fifa supremo added the people the people and government of South Africa also played a big role.

"The South African government for backing and fulfilling all their guarantees and the South Africans for their warm hospitality.

"Africa and South Africa deserve a big compliment for what they have achieved here during the past month."

The Foreign Minister of Japan, His Excellency Mr Katsuya Okada, is scheduled to pay a Working Visit to South Africa from 29 to 30 April 2010.
This first visit by a serving Japanese Foreign Minister takes place within the context of promoting North-South Cooperation and on the occasion of the Centennial of official relations between South Africa and Japan. Minister Okada will co-Chair with Minister M Nkoana-Mashabane the 10th South Africa – Japan Partnership Forum. At the 9th session of the Partnership Forum that took place in January 2009 in Tokyo, South Africa and Japan reconfirmed their extensive bilateral diplomatic relationship. Both countries expressed the wish that the Partnership continue to be advanced and strengthened through continued high-level government interaction and dialogue.

Senior Officials of both Governments will convene on the first day of the Partnership Forum in the following Working Groups:

Science and Technology
Development Co-operation and Human Resources
Economy 1: Energy
Economy 2: Joint Trade Committee

The two Ministers will meet on 30 April 2010 to discuss matters of mutual interest in the bilateral, multilateral and global spheres. This meeting will be followed by the Closing Session of the Partnership Forum at which the chairpersons of the respective Working Groups will report back on the proceedings and achievements in their Groups.
2010 marks the 100th year since the establishment of contact between South Africa and Japan with the appointment of an Honorary Consul of Japan, Sir Julius Jeppe, in Cape Town in 1910. Programmes of Centennial Celebrations events are designed to promote and deepen people-to-people interaction and mutual understanding of our respective cultures are being presented by the Embassy of South Africa in Tokyo and the Embassy of Japan in Pretoria, respectively.
Japan is an important trading partner and despite the global economic downturn, South Africa continues to enjoy a healthy trade surplus. Forecasts for 2010 indicate that bilateral trade between South Africa and South Africa will recover significantly.

Total trade 2008
R107 billion.
RSA exports 2009
R 34 billion (2008: R 66 billion)
RSA imports
R 26 billion (2008: R 41 billion)
Trade balance 2009
+ R 8 billion (2008: + R26 billion)
Total Japanese Foreign Direct Investment as at 2009
R 14 billion
Number of companies: 86

Exports/ Imports
South Africa’s principal exports are base metals, heavy metals and automobiles, while our imports are mainly automobiles, machinery, chemicals, earthmoving equipment and high-tech equipment.
Thousands of jobs in South Africa is dependent on South Africa’s exports to Japan, while Japanese companies in South Africa employ many thousands more.

Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are picked for wine making on a South African farm

South African wine sales in the UK have overtaken those of France for the first time, according to the latest figures from market analysts AC Nielsen.

South African wine sales grew 20% by volume between January 2009 and January 2010 to 12 270 000 nine-litre cases, compared to a decline in French wine sales of 12%, to 12 266 000 nine-litre cases; growth that also saw South Africa becoming the fourth-largest wine selling country in the UK.

"This is a momentous occasion for the South African wine industry, which is relatively young in terms of the global export market," Wines of South Africa UK market manager Jo Mason said in a statement last week.

"In 1994 our producers wouldn't have dreamt of selling more wine to the UK than France, but now the wine landscape has changed completely."

'Up there with the best'
Although the South African wine industry is over 350 years old, it is recently that the country's exports have seen significant growth. In 1994, the industry exported around 50-million litres of wine globally; by the close of 2009, exports had increased eightfold, reaching almost 400-million litres.

Mason pointed out that UK consumers no longer "defaulted" to European wine, and that the quality of wine from South Africa was up there with the best in the world.

"This achievement has coincided with a year where South Africa is thrust into the spotlight as host nation for the [2010 Fifa World Cup], which should ensure continued success for our wines, as visitors flock to the Cape or crack open a bottle while watching the game."

SouthAfrica.info