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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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Thabo Mbeki
Age: 82
Born: 1942
Born: June 18
Economist
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South African Politician
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
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More quotes by Thabo Mbeki

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The public service needs lots of people, South Africa generally, needs lots of people.
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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It will be a comprehensive response. The ID issue is one of them. It will make sure that Home Affairs has the capacity to reach people and to make sure that the people themselves know that they have got to get these documents and where to go to get them.
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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A modern economy and society requires skilled people, so you need to train them.
Thabo Mbeki
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How many murders are committed in Gauteng, or in the Western Cape, in a month? A week? A day? An hour? But of course we are not allowed to know for sure. In close and direct imitation of his apartheid models, Selebi ensures that no statistics about crime may be published regularly in the press.
Thabo Mbeki
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Historically during the years of the White minority regimes, the State, the national Government held this land in trust for these communities. We said, but no, why should we do that ( return the land to the communities). We didn't say return the land to particular traditional leaders, but to the communities.
Thabo Mbeki
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There must be no abuse of people and they did ask that the South Africa Government should give them whatever support they needed to make sure that they have a proper legal process, proper detention, no abuse of people during interrogation and all of that. And so, we agreed.
Thabo Mbeki
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Those who oppressed us described us as the Dark Continent!
Thabo Mbeki
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We differ with the Israeli Government about a number of things, and they know that. In the past, I have discussed with Prime Minister [Ariel] Sharon these issues. The fact that we differ about something or the other shouldn't be a matter of strain.
Thabo Mbeki
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We are quite convinced, and we say this to the Palestinians, that violence is not going to solve the problem of Israel and the Middle East. We say that to the Israelis. We say it to the Palestinians.
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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It is quite easy to understand what China would need from the African continent with regards to its own economy, raw materials, oil and a market for manufactured goods. As I say it is not difficulty to understand and perfectly legitimate. There is nothing wrong with that.
Thabo Mbeki
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Our troops are in Burundi. We were requested by African countries who said, look, the United Nations is not moving on this matter, can you people deploy people, so we can move Burundi forward.
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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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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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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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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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 think the Internet is absolutely extraordinary. It's very, very useful and I think one of the things we've got to do is make sure that the African continent gets on to that information super highway.
Thabo Mbeki