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The problem is not a lack of understanding of what we are saying and doing the problem is difference of opinion about what to do.

Thabo Mbeki

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Thabo Mbeki
Age: 82
Born: 1942
Born: June 18
Economist
Politician
South African Politician
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
Lack
Difference
Differences
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Opinion
Understanding
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More quotes by Thabo Mbeki

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I come back to what I had said earlier: the policies might be there but are people benefiting from the policies? You do find that in many instances, though the policies exist, they are not having the necessary impact. That is a particular challenge in local government, because that is where all the services get delivered.
Thabo Mbeki
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The people who steal cars, there's somebody there who is the master, who orders the cars, or just takes a car when it is brought? I am saying the law enforcement authorities have a pretty good idea about a lot of these kind of persons. We want it to pool all that knowledge and all those resources, so that they focus on these people.
Thabo Mbeki
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We would take the same position as the majority of the world about this, including this issue where Prime Minister [Ariel] Sharon made a commitment to pull Israeli troops out of Gaza.
Thabo Mbeki
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I must say also, that we are not talking just about foreign investors.
Thabo Mbeki
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South Africa now needs skilled and educated people to say 'How do we manage and develop this democratic country?'
Thabo Mbeki
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I think that probably the most important thing about our education was that it taught us to question even those things we thought we knew.
Thabo Mbeki
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I think you're a much happier person if you say 'Even if I get involved in politics, I'm only doing so in order to serve the people'. You will sleep much easier, not serving yourself, but having done your best to serve the people. Even if you have not succeeded, at least you've tried. You haven't stolen anything, and you haven't robbed the people.
Thabo Mbeki
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I was very fortunate to be able to go to school and university, because many people our age couldn't complete school. This gift of education must be used in whatever ways we can to uplift the people.
Thabo Mbeki
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If you sit in a position where decisions that you take would have a serious effect on people, you can't ignore a lot of experience around the world which says this drug has these negative effects.
Thabo Mbeki
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If you don't understand history, you will not be able to deal with today's issues.
Thabo Mbeki
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Part of the issue around communal land, which became a matter of controversy, is that we are saying that this land must go back to communities. Not chiefs and traditional leaders.
Thabo Mbeki
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There is a land problem in Zimbabwe, there is a need land for redistribution but it must be handled different, without violence, without conflict, within the context of the law, bearing in mind the interests of all Zimbabweans both black and white. It's necessary that the Zimbabwean government to respond positively to those sorts of messages.
Thabo Mbeki
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You can see now with all the assurance that people have about the overall general management of the economy, they then ask more specific questions that we are able to answer.
Thabo Mbeki
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We do not accept that human society should be constructed on the basis of a savage principle of the survival of the fittest
Thabo Mbeki
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You have to make sure that [grants] reach people by virtue of their Identity Documents.
Thabo Mbeki
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Of course we run a very open economy, and therefore what happens in the rest of the world, in economic terms, obviously has an impact on us.
Thabo Mbeki
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That is one of the reasons why we have raised this matter about the need to focus quite sharply on the function of local government, but also on the resourcing of local government. Because it may very well be that we say to local government, you have got to run an indigent policy.
Thabo Mbeki
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I have absolutely no problem with the press criticising policies and the things that we do, the things that we say.
Thabo Mbeki
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If we don't move forward with regard to creating a non-racial society in South Africa and we allow this legacy of apartheid to persist, these divisions between black and white in wealth and income and so on, in the future you would indeed have an ugly upheaval.
Thabo Mbeki
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A global human society, characterised by islands of wealth, surrounded by a sea of poverty, is unsustainable
Thabo Mbeki