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We can't treat the matter of black economic empowerment as just the redistribution of existing wealth. It really has to focus on new investment, on growth, on development of employment and so on and so on.

Thabo Mbeki

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Thabo Mbeki
Age: 82
Born: 1942
Born: June 18
Economist
Politician
South African Politician
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
Focus
Existing
Economic
Employment
Black
Treat
Matter
Treats
Really
Investment
Development
Growth
Redistribution
Wealth
Empowerment

More quotes by 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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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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Clearly, we are very, very concerned about the situation, for instance, that has been going on in Gaza.
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
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The question arose, how would the communities manage this land on their own. That's why the Communal Land Rights Bill then borrows an institution that is set up in terms of the role and function and powers of the institutional traditional leadership ( borrows that committee and uses that committee).
Thabo Mbeki
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Our experience over the last 20 years has shown that indeed people must themselves become their own liberators. You cannot wait for somebody else to come and rescue you.
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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The Communal Land Rights Bill then said, since there would be those collectives set up in terms of the other legislation, there was no need for them to set up other structures to deal with the land 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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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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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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The problems that are arising at Johannesburg International Airport are because of the growth of volume, not because of inefficiencies at the Airport. But, the growth in movement of goods by air means that cargo capacity needs to be improved. And I am quite certain that we will do it.
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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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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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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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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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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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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I don't think there would be many examples of South Africa pushing its weight around the African Continent. I don't think the facts would substantiate that argument.
Thabo Mbeki