A round table was held in Pretoria on the topic: ‘The Pearl Jubilee of the Independence of Kazakhstan: 30 years on the path of building peace and harmony’. It was attended by well-known public figures, representatives of international organizations, as well as South African academia and mass media, Delovoy Kazakhstan reports.
In particular, Honourable Mrs. Ndileka Mandela (the eldest grandchild of H.E. Nelson Mandela, the First President of South Africa, the Nobel Prize laureate), who is Founder and CEO of the Thembekile Mandela Foundation, philanthropist and social activist, was the Guest of Honour at the event. The meeting was also attended by Mr. Abdülaziz Yiğit, Director of the Representative Office of the Institute of Turkish Language and Culture in South Africa (Johannesburg) named after Yunus Emre; Professor of Al-Ghazali College (Tshwane), Doctor of Philosophy Mr. Asadullo Karimov; Ms. Susan Novela, CEO of the South African media outlet ‘The Diplomatic Informer Magazine’; as well as other representatives of the South African society.
In his welcoming speech Ambassador Kanat Tumysh of Kazakhstan, acquainted the participants to the meeting with the following:
- the main aspects of domestic and foreign policy of Kazakhstan; priorities for cooperation with the countries of the Southern African region;
- the course of implementation of international initiatives of H.E. Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan – the Leader of the Nation (Elbasy), in particular, in the anti-war and anti-nuclear spheres, as well as in the field of interethnic harmony and inter-confessional dialogue;
- in addition, the Kazakh diplomat dwelled on the state reforms by H.E. President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, carried out based on the principles of the ‘Listening State’.
- he especially emphasized that throughout this year of 2021 Kazakhstan is celebrating the Thirties (Pearl) Anniversary of its Independence as a state, whose authority and reputation on the international arena are unshakable. The country, which has managed to become an economic ‘Snow Leopard’ and a regional power, implemented important reforms in the field of development and other important areas. Significant global initiatives of its leadership have become known to the whole world, primarily in the field of building a world free from wars, conflicts and terrorism, as well as achieving a nuclear-weapon-free future.
In this vein, the Ambassador said that on the eve of the International Day against Nuclear Tests, celebrated all over the world on August 29, the Foundation of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan plans to hold on 25-27 August 2021in Nur-Sultan a number of international events, dedicated to this day and 30th Anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. In this regard, he invited Honourable Ms. Ndileka Mandela and representatives of the South African mass media to pay a visit to Kazakhstan for participating these events in the Kazakh capital, familiarize personally with the Land of Great Steppe and get the first-hand information about the country’s development from its political, social, business and academic circles. Regarding some world-famous initiatives of Elbasy, such as G-Global and the Alliance of Global Leaders for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World, Mr. Tumysh noted that they received broad support in South Africa largely thanks to the active support by Ms. Ndileka Mandela. In this context, the Ambassador of Kazakhstan highly praised her contribution to the popularization of the ‘Nursultan Nazarbayev’s Formula for Peace and Harmony’.
In turn, Ms. Ndileka Mandela, while addressing the participants to the round table, underscored some important topics as noted below:
“I consider the formula of peace and harmony of Nursultan A. Nazarbayev as a unique recipe for the leadership and people of the country to build a highly successful independent state and overcome various modern challenges, while meeting the current difficult times under the world-famous motto of Kazakhstan: ‘One people, one country, one destiny’.
By the 30th Anniversary of its Independence, Kazakhstan was able to become a dynamic state in terms of its development, a confident economic leader and a regional power with significant influence. The First President Nursultan Nazarbayev headed the country at the dawn of Freedom and led it to today’s successes. Immediately after the end of the Cold War – in the turmoil, tension and uncertainty of the early 90s of the last century, Elbasy, thanks to His Excellency’s wisdom and foresight, created this successful formula and adhered to it, having secured the decisive support of his people. Hence, he was able to convincingly present to his compatriots the contours of a brighter future awaiting them, and subsequently bring them to it three decades later.
His life values are similar to those of my famous grandfather Nelson Mandela. He also gave priority to building statehood and gaining freedom, improving the quality of education and living standards of marginalized people, ensuring equality for all citizens of all nationalities and ethnicities”.
In July 2021, at the initiative of Honourable Ms. Ndileka Mandela, a representative office of the International Platform G-Global was opened on the African continent (in Johannesburg) for the first time in history. Concurrently, she also became Chair of the G-Global International Fund for the Empowerment of Youth in the framework of the UN SDGs 2030 Agenda, and was recently elected a member of the International Board of the Global Silk Road Award.
At the end of the round table, Mr. Tumysh thanked the representatives of the South African society and international community for their contribution to the development of bilateral and multilateral cooperation between Nur-Sultan and Pretoria in the cultural, humanitarian and developmental spheres. At the same time, he presented to Ms. Ndileka Mandela a Letter of Gratitude from H.E. Mr. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan as a token of special recognition of her merits in the popularization of international initiatives of Kazakhstan in South Africa, as well as in the development of universally recognized humanitarian values all over the world. In addition, the important contribution of South African and international public figures in the RSA to the promotion of the legacy of Abay and Al-Farabi in Africa was also highly appreciated. In this context, Ms. Ndileka Mandela, Mr. Abdülaziz Yiğit, Dr. Assadulo Karimov and Ms. Susan Novela were awarded the Certificates of Merit by the Minister of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan A. Raimkulova, which were presented to them by Ambassador Tumysh on behalf of the Kazakh side.
