hey good evening and happy independence day everybody and and thank you for joining us
here this evening i would especially like to thank our guest of honor uh deputy minister bepela for
joining our celebration you know i just had the opportunity to sit with uh the deputy minister
and talk a little bit about his life and and one thing that's always amazing for me being here in
south africa is it's possible to meet the heroes of the south african nation in a way that you know
obviously we still have heroes but our independence struggle was long ago
and we talked a little bit about his participation in the soweto uprising all those years ago so i
can't tell you what a terrific honor it is to have you here at our independent celebration
celebrating the freedom in south africa but also the the the freedom in the united states
look as with so many other special occasions this year the pandemic has prevented our traditional
celebration of the 245th anniversary of u.s independence we'll have some glitches as the night
goes on but we did want to mark this event we've all suffered so much during this past 16 months
but even now in the midst of a devastating third wave we're seeing that by working together and
further investing in our friendship and partnership we can we will defeat this virus the
past year has taught us that we must continue to strive to ensure that everyone regardless of race
creed sex or origin can exercise their basic human rights and the commitment to these values
is something that our two nations share we must continue to struggle together in pursuit of these
ideals to me one of the clearest examples of this shared struggle comes from our president
joe biden when he was just still a senator in 1986 after months of anti-apartheid protests
across college campuses in the united states and a vigorous debate over potential sanctions against
south africa joe biden took to the floor of the u.s congress and uncharacteristically he pounded
the table as he spoke senator biden demanded that our nation show the moral backbone that
impassioned speech gave fire to the anti-apartheid movement in the united states and within just a
few weeks the u.s senate passed the comprehensive anti-apartheid act now today some 35 years after
that the friendship and partnership between our two countries has continued to strengthen
president biden's commitment to south africa is steadfast he again demonstrated that this week
announcing the donation of a million additional vaccine doses from the united states
for the people of south africa we're also incredibly proud to partner
with south africa's scientists and businesses in a new initiative to help produce hundreds
of millions of vaccines right here in south africa just yesterday the united states and our
international partners from from the world bank from germany from france announced a new deal with
aspen pharmacare that will be a game changer for south africa and for the continent our partnership
with this world-class south african company will help aspen scale up its production to produce more
than 500 million doses a half a billion doses of the johnson jackson vaccine by the end of 2022
every one of the 220 million dose 220 million doses produced this year will stay here on the
continent with 30 million going directly into arms here in south africa enough to vaccinate
half the country these recent announcements closely follow our public support for waiving
intellectual property protections for the coven 19 vaccine following the lead of south africa the
u.s will now actively participate in text-based negotiations at the world trade organization
our goal president biden's goal is to get as many safe and effective vaccines
to as many people around the world as possible and to do that as fast as possible that's just a small
part of the cooperation between the u.s and south africa in the face of the pandemic scientists in
both of our countries have been working together in research partnerships and clinical trials
ultimately having produced a covet-19 vaccine that will be manufactured and used here in south africa
we've invested more than a billion rand in south africa in fighting this pandemic
working with the south african government and other partners we've helped to establish field
hospitals and underserved provinces provided hand washing stations in schools across the country
strengthened the supply chain to ensure efficient vaccine distribution and provided a thousand
ventilators to treat the south africans who need the help the most we all know
and president biden has said this himself many times the pandemic is not under control anywhere
until the pandemic is under control everywhere and we will only overcome this illness by
working together that's why the united states has invested so much inviting covet 19 in south africa
and why we've invested over a hundred billion rand yes let me say that again a hundred billion rand
through pepfar and supporting the health of south africans since 2004 and this is why we continue
to lead the world in pandemic assistance working with kovacs and other multilateral
partners to pledge hundreds of millions of vaccines doses to countries around the globe
the core values that we share as americans and south africans values of innovation and
ingenuity and leadership and fundamental decency are what binds our two countries together
so closely and what ensures that our partnership will be the deciding factor in putting an end
to this pandemic and furthering our friendship in the decades ahead of all holidays independence day
is perhaps the best for reflecting on where we've come from where we're going and what matters most
from our shared struggles for equal rights to our deep core values and our shared culture
the friendship between the united states and south africa has only strengthened with age
i'm certain that our partnership will continue to improve as we work together on common challenges
and strive to uphold our shared ideals these may be difficult times here and around the world but
i'm certain that we will emerge stronger together thank you and now i would like to propose a toast
here's two the independence of the united states
and the friendship between our two great nations here's two