Speech of Mr. Michal Král, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to South Africa, on the occasion of the Czech National Day celebration, 24 October 2019

 

Excellency Mr. Jacob Skosana, DG of Department of Justice and Constitutional Development,

Dean of Diplomatic Corps, Excellencies Ambassadors and High Commissioners,

Representatives of South African Departments and institutions (Governmental Officials), particularly partners from DIRCO,

Members of the Diplomatic Corps,

Business partners, Czech compatriots,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good early afternoon, hezké odpoledne,

It gives me a big pleasure to welcome all of you on behalf of the Czech Embassy and Czech community to our Residence on the occasion of the Czech National Day. Thank you for accepting our invitation and gracing this moment, so precious to us, with your kind presence.

Special appreciation goes to my dear friend Marius Heyens who was so kind to accept today´s role as Master of Ceremony (Programme Director). And, of course, big thanks to a great opera singer Loveline Madumo for her outstanding artistic contribution.

You might remember that last year we celebrated 100 years of Czechoslovakia, together with our colleagues and friends from the Slovak Embassy. I always need to explain why we celebrate a centenary as people ask me: independent Czechia was born only in 1993. Although Czechoslovakia never reached that age, we still adhere to the moment in 1918 when Czechoslovakia was established and thus the Czech statehood was restored after 3 centuries in its historical borders.

But also this year we commemorate a few, not less important, anniversaries which show how turbulent our modern history was. Namely, 15 years of our membership in the EU, 20 years in NATO, and, in a few weeks we will be celebrating 30 years of so called Velvet Revolution when our society started its transformation process towards parliamentary democracy and market economy. All this offered us numerous new opportunities. I am glad to say that the Czech Republic today enjoys a steady economic growth and lowest unemployment rate (2,2%) within the EU. And a high level of security, Czechia is currently the 6^th safest place in the world. South Africa is our most important partner in the region of sub-Saharan Africa which is well proven with our traditionally friendly relations, both political and economic.

We believe that political consultations between our two countries on the level of Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs, that have been taking place since 2010, are bringing excellent results. The next consultations are planned for 2020 in Prague.

It is highly appreciated that the 4th Meeting of our Joint Committee on Economic Cooperation (JCEC) at the level of Deputy Ministers of Trade and Industry was held on the 4th October this year in Prague with participation of a dozen South African companies.

The volume of our trade exchange has been steadily growing more than tenfold in the last 13 years which is supported by the 20 % increase during 2018, reaching 913 million EUR (I promise, that is the only statistic number I will mention today).

A Czech company PFNonwovens has commenced its production in June 2019 in Atlantis, Western Cape. It is the biggest investment in the Western Cape in the last 10 years, creating a significant number of working opportunities in the area. With regards to cultural events, let me just mention a few since our last National Day. A concert of a Czech folk group Spiritual Kvintet and a concert of Czech cellist Jan Pech with the Gauteng Philharmonic Orchestra, both at Brooklyn Theatre. And our support of a concert of Bohemian Brilliance performed by the Pretoria Symphony Orchestra at UNISA Matthews Hall. They were all warmly received by local audience.

I am standing here, in front of you, and under the jakarandas, for the 5^th time during my stay here and sadly for the last time as I will be leaving this beautiful country in a couple of weeks. I am going back to headquarters, as I have a work to do there. But no matter what my future will bring I will always be tempted to come back to SA, in one role or another. And to see jakarandas again.

SA is actually 15x bigger than my country. I realized this when we went by car to CT and I said while on the highway, “guys did you notice we are driving already 1 hour and there was not a single curve?” This is impossible in Czechia, you either go left or right, up or down. And when we entered Kruger National Park which is as big as Belgium. I also had to learn a few new things. Like what it means when people ask you, “how are you?” Initially I was trying to explain to them how I am doing, before I found out it is just a phrase and nobody listens to me anyway, so I stopped doing it. Or what it means “braai”. I am grateful to my special friends who introduced me to a very interesting previously unknown sport called “rugby”. At least I now know how important this sport is for the SA people (btw. congratulations on your semi-finals). And (last not least) I am not shy to confess I fell in love with SA wines, Pinotage in particular. We like to make our life and work here more interesting. Time to time we resort to not very traditional projects to make the countries promotion more lively. Thus, we organized a Golf Day late last year. The response was so good that we decided to repeat it again this year (31.10.). I wish to thank our sponsors for their support. Some of you may also remember our Shooting day which allowed our colleagues and partners to experience the quality of our personal weapons. And once my Cultural Councillor even forced me to arrange a Fashion Show which was by far the most difficult function for me.

We deeply acknowledge the support of the CzechTrade agency, partnership with the University of Pretoria and UNISA, SAIIA, Holocaust and Genocide Centre in Joburg, Moravian Church, Brooklyn Theatre. And of course, our long lasting friendship with Tsegofatsong Special School in Mamelodi with the big help from the Rotary Sunrise Club.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank all our Visegrad Group partners (Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) for their kind cooperation, including joint use of our Cape Town facility.

I wish to thank all the members of the Czech Embassy (including our locally recruited staff) for their hard and devoted work over those 4 years, regardless of time demand, and sometimes discomfort and self-sacrifice. I believe that this team achieved something, well past their potential. And that all this creates a good basis for further cultivation (as this work never ends). And as my successor will be in charge from the 2^nd half of November, I have a special request to you (as you are like my family, my home away from home). Please give him the same support and kindness you offered me to make his stay as pleasant and meaningful as mine.

In closing I would like to thank all the staff who worked hard to make today’s event happen, and especially Mrs. Alenka Strolená who was once again our chef during the preparation of our traditional (Czech) meals. I hope you will also enjoy our Czech beer, although neither Pilsner nor Budweiser, but today´s brand is as decent, trust me.

Finally, let me propose a toast to the president of SA Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of the CR Miloš Zeman and to everlasting fruitful cooperation between our two countries and nations.

And I am also taking this opportunity to say my farewells and goodbyes.

Thank you.

Michal Král