Speech by the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Mohlabi Tsekoa, at the official launch of the Lesotho NEPAD Chapter   'Manthabiseng Convention Centre  30 August 2004

The Right Honourable The Prime Minister,

 Mr. Pakalitha Mosisili

Honourable President of Senate

Honourable Speaker of the National Assembly

Your Lordship The Chief Justice

Honourable Deputy Prime Minister

Honourable Ministers

Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu - NEPAD Chief Executive

Your Excellencies Heads of Diplomatic Mission and

International Organisations

Senior Government Officials

Distinguished Representatives of Organisations in

   Partnership with Government

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen 

It is with great honour and a sense of special privilege that I welcome you all to this historic event that marks the launching of the Lesotho NEPAD Chapter.  We are particularly honoured to have amongst us, Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu, Chief Executive of NEPAD and his delegation.  Those of us who have been involved in arrangements to ultimately make this occasion possible, know how illusive the Chief Executive has been!  That illusiveness has not been without reason as Professor Nkuhlu is a servant of our continental organization, the African Union and his is a life in a pressure cooker as he makes meaning of the NEPAD concept and process across the continent. 

Your Excellencies

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen 

Today is special and has a specific purpose as we will be witnessing the official launch of the Lesotho NEPAD Chapter by the Right Honourable the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Lesotho.  We have all been invited to this event so that, as torch-bearers of various organizations and as a nation, we may assume ownership of the Lesotho NEPAD Chapter.  Moreover, we shall at the end of this event, have an opportunity to appreciate more precisely what NEPAD is all about and how we may benefit from it. 

Of course, this distinguished audience knows or ought to know that NEPAD is premised on the understanding that Africa’s peoples share a common destiny, and that the development and success of each of our countries and peoples is directly linked to the success and development of the rest of our continent.  And we also know that, for far too long, Africa has lived within a painful paradox of abundant natural resources and yet the continent has continued to swim in a shocking mire of abject poverty, conflicts, disease and under-development. 

As Africans and as Basotho, we have a duty to determine what we ourselves must do to address these challenges.  As we grapple with facilitating our own development, we are called upon to redefine our relationship with developed countries as one of partnership and not of dependence using, amongst others, NEPAD’s very core characteristic of a partnership among governments, multi-lateral organizations, the private sector, labour unions and civil society.  This African Union’s development arm represents a commitment to use our own resources to address the challenges of poverty and under-development.  It focuses, amongst others, on human resources development, with specific emphasis on education, health and gender equality, agriculture, diversification of production, increased capital inflows, market access, debt relief, infrastructure, technology and capacity building.

Your Excellencies

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen 

The following selected indicators may help to drive the point home regarding the plight of our continent.  Over 40% of Sub-Saharan African people live below the international poverty line of US $1 a day.  More than 140 million young Africans are illiterate.  The mortality rate of children under 5 years of age is 140 per 1000, and life expectancy at birth is only 54 years.  Only 58 per cent of the population have access to safe water.   The rate of illiteracy for people over 15 is 41 per cent.  Africa’s share of world trade has plummeted, accounting for less than 20%.   Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows to African economies have dropped in the last decade and fallen well short of the estimated US $50 billion a year required to reach the Millennium Development Goals.  Clearly, and given Africa’s enormous potential and resources, Africa has to pull herself up by her bootstraps urgently.  NEPAD is the driving force for this critical transformation. 

There can no longer be any doubt that Lesotho has taken a deliberate decision to join Africa’s quest for development.  What will remain a persistent challenge for our country and nation is making difficult choices of development priorities and going into implementing them with unshakeable commitment using often limited resources.   And nor can we afford to be complacent and indifferent to the formidable analysis of development processes and social change by Denis Goulet, the author of The Cruel Choice: 

                “Development processes are both cruel and necessary.  They are necessary because all societies must come to terms with new aspirations and irresistible social forces.  Yet the choices they face are cruel because development’s benefits are obtained only at a great price and because, on balance, it is far from certain that achieving development’s benefits makes men happier or freer.  Moreover, development has always been and remains a harsh process.” 

This is the nature of the challenge even as this Lesotho NEPAD Chapter is launched today.  Somehow, Lesotho has to be a success in that quest.  If we fail, it will be because of ourselves. 

Your Excellencies

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen 

Once again, let me thank all of you for having sacrificed your time to be present at this event.  Indeed, the emerging partnership between Government, the private sector and the civil society is further re-affirmation of Basotho shaping their destiny together. 

I THANK YOU.