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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
Differences
Saying
Opinion
Understanding
Problem
Lack
Difference

More quotes by Thabo Mbeki

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I think anybody who knows anything about South Africa and the South African economy would know that one of the big constraints to growth and development is skills shortages. So all of us, need to come at this thing as vigorously as is possible and, of course, the private sector has the capacity to take it on board.
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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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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A matter that seems to be very clear in terms of the alternative view, is what do you expect to happen in Africa with regard to immune systems, where people are poor, subject to repeat infections and all of that. Surely you would expect their immune systems to collapse.
Thabo Mbeki
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The principal investors in the South African economy are South Africans. And this is something, I think, we should really pay attention to.
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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The King had been a good friend of the government and the people of South Africa and we all mourn his passing with our brothers and sisters in Saudi Arabia.
Thabo Mbeki
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For an investor who is sitting in the United States, and South Africa is very far from the United States, you need to go out to that investor to say, these are the possibilities in this particular sector.
Thabo Mbeki
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The problem is not unique the challenge is not unique to South Africa. Other African countries have faced it. But in our case, we have got to solve the problem. You have got an institutional traditional leadership, which functions in a particular way, in for instance, your communal areas.
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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Does HIV cause AIDS? Can a virus cause a syndrome? How? It can't, because a syndrome is a group of diseases resulting from acquired immune deficiency.
Thabo Mbeki
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I know there is a lot of concern I know about plans that Iran might have to develop nuclear weapons which arises from positions that Iran took in the past when in fact it did not disclose things to the IAEA… because they were hiding something. I can understand that.
Thabo Mbeki
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We are in the process of negotiating an agreement with the United States. We will be negotiating agreements with India and China. We are in the process of negotiating an agreement with Mercosur, South America. So there are a number of these trade agreements in the major markets of the world.
Thabo Mbeki
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Whoever we may be, whatever our immediate interest, however much we carry baggage from our past, however much we have been caught by the fashion of cynicism and loss of faith in the capacity of the people, let us err today and say - nothing can stop us now!
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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Many of our own people here in this country do not ask about computers, telephones and television sets. They ask - when will we get a road to our village.
Thabo Mbeki
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Clearly, we are very, very concerned about the situation, for instance, that has been going on in Gaza.
Thabo Mbeki
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Those communal areas have got elected municipalities, which have got to do their work as, as fully, democratically elected municipal councils.
Thabo Mbeki
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If we only said safe sex, use a condom, we won't stop the spread of AIDS in this country.
Thabo Mbeki
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The law enforcement authorities have got a fairly good idea of who are these principal criminals. Who are the people, for instance, who receive the cell phones? When a young person goes and snatches a cell phone, there's someone who is sitting somewhere who receives this. Lots of this kind of crime.
Thabo Mbeki