Distinguished guests,
I regret not being able to join you in person today
to share this moment of celebration.
I have asked my Chief Executive,
Achmat Dangor, to be with you on my behalf.
You will recall that,
just a few months after I was released from prison
in February 1990,
I visited the ILO
and spoke at your Conference.
At that time I said that,
despite the thickness of the prison walls,
all of us on Robben Island
and other jails could hear your voices
demanding our release.
We drew inspiration from this.
We thank you in the ILO
for your support
and for refusing to forget us.
Today the ILO continues
to promote the values we share,
the rights we all must respect
and the ideal that progress is only possible
through genuine dialogue.
You have established these principles
under the banner of what you call
Decent Work
and today we can say
that the principles of decent work
exemplify our common values,
our shared respect for dialogue
and our concerns about the plight
of our impoverished fellow citizens.
Decent work is based on the efforts
of personal dignity,
on democracies that deliver for people,
and economic growth
that expands opportunities for productive jobs
and enterprise development.
Decent work also underpins the principle
that the purpose of creating work
is to eradicate poverty.
We are slowly
but surely achieving the reconstruction
and development of our country
so that our democracy works for all.
Our Constitution entrenches the rights of workers
with laws,
most of them new
and unprecedented in our country's history.
We cite such gains
because they form the backdrop
to our acknowledgement
that we need still more effective social dialogue
and consultation in all areas of policy.
Decent work is about the right not only to survive
but to prosper
and to have a dignified
and fulfilling quality of life.
This right must be available to all human beings.
We rely on the ILO
to continue its struggle
to make decent work a global reality.
I would also like to salute the ILO
for having created
the ILO Decent Work Research Prize.
Knowledge and understanding
of socio-economic relationships
are essential for progress.
If decent work goals are to be achieved
we need better knowledge,
more research,
better education.
It is an honour for us to express once again
our support for the ILO,
its goals
and its values.
I thank you.