President Michael D Higgins welcomed the president of the Republic of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, to lunch and bilateral talks at Áras an Uachtaráin on Wednesday.
The two heads of state have known each other for years. In his address to Mr Ramaphosa, President Higgins noted their relationship was based on “a shared commitment to freedom and justice”.
In an address which covered their individual searches for equality and cultural ties between the two countries, Mr Higgins said: “Ireland and South Africa have a special relationship.”
He noted the relationship was “one that can be traced back to struggles for independence based on the brave efforts of a principled opposition of racism and the legacies of exclusion and domination”.
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Mr Higgins recalled the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation in Dublin Castle, established after the 1994 ceasefires, in which Mr Ramaphosa participated, offering advice based on his own contributions to negotiations ending apartheid in South Africa four years earlier.
Mr Ramaphosa also took part in the peace process as an inspector for the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning and Mr Higgins recalled how he had gained the trust of diverse groups, “a trust earned from your role in the struggle against apartheid and as a senior negotiator in the transition away from the tyrannical apartheid regime”.
Mr Higgins said: “Ireland, for its part, stood firmly against the racist policies of the apartheid regime imposed on black South Africans and supported the global Anti-Apartheid Movement, establishing a connection based on the shared goals of freedom and equality.”
Having been welcomed to the Áras, Mr Ramaphosa signed the distinguished visitors’ book and inspected a guard of honour.
