31 March 2008, Johannesburg General Hospital
Hon. Minister Makwenge, I wish to extend a warm welcome to you and your Delegation to my country on this occasion of the South Africa - DRC BI-National Commission.
Minister, we have been working together for some time now on the various projects that we had set for ourselves in the Health Sector co-operation.
During this your visit, we once more have the opportunity to look at what we do with regard to these identified priorities, and how we escalate the co-operation in Health.
I am fully delighted that you have honored us with your presence during this BNC.
Establishment of Relations in Health:
When we established our relations in Health a few years ago after the inaugural BNC in 2004, we had based all on our mutual determination to translate the quality of life of the people of our two countries.
Hon. Minister, we are both mindful that none of us can succeed without the success of the other due to our common destiny that is intrinsically linked to each other in Health
Your country remains a pillar of our Foreign Policy priorities in line with the Consolidation of the African Agenda.
Decisions arising from the previous BNC's:
Since the previous BNC's we had agreed to co-operate in numerous areas including but not limited to co-operation in the areas of: -
We further agreed that we would make a concerted effort to obtain funding for the implementation of our projects; have exchange of experts between our countries' public health institutions; business sector; civil society etc, etc.
All these commitments were aimed to further increasing the opportunities to access of our peoples to each other's Health facilities and institutions.
We also agreed to establish a Joint Committee with clear terms of reference which committee would be tasked with the overall co-ordination, management, monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of our Programmes.
Your visit here gives us a golden opportunity to build on these decisions that we have taken previously, to take stock of the progress that has been made in this regard, where there has not been progress or progress has been slow, to look at the bottlenecks that have slowed the progress and unlock them.
SADC:
Hon. Minister, I will be taking up the Chairpersonship of the regional organization, SADC later this year.
We need to work much closer together within the SADC and the AU.
This closer co-operation will add a further impetus to building on our people-to-people relations.
I bank on your support as I do on the rest of the SADC Ministers of Health in evolving specific positions to advance the Health Sector during my tenor as Chairperson of SADC.
This will ensure that SADC is better able to effectively lead the region. We remain aware that a lot still needs to be done for the strengthening and effective functioning of this regional organization.
Minister, I look forward to your input in this regard.
Health Diaspora:
We need to work even closer together to attract back into our countries, more especially back into the DRC, the Health professionals who are in the Diaspora mainly in developed countries.
Visit to South Africa:
Your visit here in the context of the South Africa - DRC BNC will serve the purpose to consolidate relations between our two countries even further.
It will enable us to evaluate the progress we are making in the field of health, and evaluate the current projects that are supporting the Health priorities of your country.
Visit to the DRC:
Hon. Minister, I look forward to undertaking a visit to your country at a mutually convenient time, but preferably before the month of August of this year, to further add impetus to this co-operation.
Mobilization of Resources:
Hon. Minister, in line with our agreement to make a concerted effort to obtain funding for the implementation of our projects, and as a follow-up to continue the discussions we had in Brussels recently with the EU on the mobilization of resources to support our engagements in our priority areas of health co-operation, my office has set up an appointment with the Head of Delegation of the EC, Ambassador L Briet on Tuesday 1 April 2008, to further discuss our tri-lateral co-operation.
Our efforts clearly seek the support of the international community and international financing institutions for these efforts to come to fruition.
Theses efforts will ensure that our meager resources are augmented.
In this regard, I am of the opinion that we must arrange for a joint delegation of our senior officials to Brussels at earliest convenience to finalize the implementation plans relating to decisions we took with the EU in Brussels, and the decisions that will come out of our meeting with Ambassador Briet.
Programme for the visit:
Hon. Minister, my office has also made arrangements for you to visit the Johannesburg Hospital including the Donald Gordon Medical Centre.
This is our flagship project to raise the standards of our public hospital in medical care, and to prove that our public hospitals can indeed rise to the levels that we tend to associate only with private hospitals.
You may be aware Hon. Minister, that this is the Hospital at which I was successfully treated.
We have also arranged for you to visit the Red Cross War Memorial Children's hospital in Cape Town on Friday 4th April 2008.
Conclusion:
Hon. Minister, your visit to my country will indeed ensure the acceleration of the achievement of our goals and objectives and cement our relations.
My department stands ready to, within the limited resources and capacities, to assist the people of the DRC.
I wish to once more, heartily thank you for the kind hospitality that I and my delegation received during our last visit to your country on the occasion of the last BNC.
I hope that your stay in South Africa will be a pleasant and hospitable one.