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SA wins global Diplomatic Service Award
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 South Africa has added another feather to its cap after the World Affairs Council in Washington named the country as the 2016 recipient of the Distinguished Diplomatic Service Award.
The award was received by South Africa’s Ambassador to the US‚ Mninwa Mahlangu‚ on behalf of the South African government.
South African is the first African country to receive this award. The award recognises organizations who demonstrate an outstanding commitment to global education, international affairs and global communications.
International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said South Africa is truly humbled to receive the prestigious award.
“This recognition will further inspire and encourage our diplomats who work 24/7 around the world to advance our country’s national interests,” the Minister said.
South Africa’s international engagements are driven by the foreign policy vision of a united African continent that is peaceful, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, and prosperous and which contributes to a world that is just and equitable. Picture: Yolande Snyman
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Neighbourly cooperation between Botswana and South Africa
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 "More than our shared history, we also share languages, borders, common goals for the upliftment of our citizens and the growth of our respective countries as well as the region," said Deputy Minister of the SA Department of International Relations and Cooperation, Mr Luwellyn Landers, on the occasion of the Botswana High Level Breakfast Forum. "We cooperate on a large number of issues including transport, trade and investment, health, education, environmental issues, water, science and technology, agriculture, justice, immigration, energy, finance, culture, security, and sport among others. Needless to say that the fact that we share 16 border posts with Botswana and a significant stretch of land border, 1840km to be precise, makes our cooperation not only desirable, but an absolute necessity. Concerning the economic ties between the two countries, we wish to acknowledge Botswana’s continued importance as one of South Africa’s major trading partners in the region. We are aware of the large presence of South African companies in Botswana which are involved in various sectors such as housing, food and beverages, construction, retail, hotels and leisure, banking, medical services, etc. We trust that companies operating in Botswana will continue to contribute to the growth and development of the Botswana economy as well as skills transfer. "
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Rivonia Trial dictabelts digitized
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 On March 17 2016 the voices and sounds of the historical Rivonia Trial filled the courtroom of The Palace of Justice in Pretoria’s Church Square. The distinct voice of Nelson Mandela was immediately recognizable as if it was being channelled through a medium at a séance.
Cooperation between South Africa’s Ministry of Arts and Culture and the French National Audio-visual Institute (INA) will make possible public access to over 50 000 dictabelts which will be digitised for easy dissemination. To begin with there are 230 hours of audio records of the historic Rivonia Trial that took place between October 1963 and June 1964. 591 dictabelts were entrusted to INA in October 2013 for digitization. The official handover of the recordings took place in dramatic fashion in the actual courtroom where the trial took place and was attended by among others three special guests, Andrew Mlangeni, Dennis Goldberg, and Ahmed Kathrada the surviving accused.
The availability of the recordings to the public will allow a wide analysis of the case itself and perhaps answer many questions regarding this significant milestone in South Africa’s history. It may also raise many questions about a paranoid and ruthless regime and a miscalculation of strategy on the part of the accused.
Picture: Courtroom C, Palace of Justice, Church Square, Pretoria, South Africa
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Palestinian teacher wins the Global Teacher Prize
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 The announcement of a Palestinian teacher from the West Bank as a winner of the Valley Park Foundation’s 2016 Global Teacher’s Prize during a ceremony in Dubai hit the front page headlines in Palestinian daily’s.
Hanan al-Hroub, from the Bethlehem district Duheisha refugee camp, was announced as a global teacher, she was selected winner of the Valley Park Foundation's Global Teacher's Prize for 2016, out of about 8,000 contestants from around the globe.
Al-Hroub was reported in al-Quds as saying: “We want our children to live in peace.”
Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah congratulated Palestinian teacher Hanan al-Hroub for winning the Global Teacher Prize, saying she has accomplished the impossible despite of all the obstacles put in front of every Palestinian by the Israeli occupation; she makes us proud,”.
During the award ceremony, al-Hroub said: "I am proud to be a Palestinian female teacher standing on this stage. I accept this as a win for all teachers in general and Palestinian teachers in particular.
"We, as teachers, can build the values and morals of young minds to ensure a fair, beautiful and free world, she added. "The future seems far and ambiguous, however, when you are involved in making it, the world represents a light."
Hanan Al Hroub grew up in the Palestinian refugee camp, Bethlehem, where she was regularly exposed to acts of violence. She went into primary education after her children were left deeply traumatized by a shooting incident they witnessed on their way home from school. Her experiences in meetings and consultations to discuss her children’s behaviour, development and academic performance in the years that followed led Hanan to try to help others who, having grown up in similar circumstances, require special handling at school.
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Central Asia: A New Frontier for Business Opportunities
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 By Srimal Fernando, Global Editor, The Diplomatic Society
Enormous strides made by Central Asian countries in recent years with sustained periods of economic growth, characterised by record levels of Foreign direct investment (FDI), is seen as the new frontier attracting worldwide attention. The five independent republics of Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan are at crossroads.
Pictured (l-r) Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimohamedov and Indian Vice President Muhammad Hamid Ansari jointly performed the groundbreaking of the 10 billion dollar trans regional energy project.
Central Asia is seen as the new frontier for multi nationals, retailers and consumer goods around the world with a rapidly expanding middle class. Central Asia’s abundant and diverse natural resources attract high level of foreign investment. According to regional sources the confirmed Oil deposits in the region is estimated to be around 2.7 percent of all the confirmed deposits of the world. Pipeline politics is a unique mix of economic and political objectives. In the last decade new pipeline routes have emerged in Central Asia.
The 1814 kilometre Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI), gas pipeline is designed to cross four countries.The US$10 billion new pipe line project is implemented in accordance with the intergovernmental agreement made between the four participating countries.
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Polish Ambassador opens "Samaritans from Markowa" at the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre
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 The Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Pretoria, in collaboration with the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre, held the exhibition "Samaritans from Markowa" in Johannesburg on 17 March 2016. The opening ceremony of the exhibition was one of the events associated with the grand opening of the Ulm Museum of Poles Saving Jews in Markowa on 17 March 2016. The exhibition was opened by the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Pretoria, HE Ms Anna Raduchowska-Brochwicz (pictured 2nd from right). In her speech, Ambassador Raduchowska-Brochwicz stressed the importance of the event and the need to show the facts documenting the participation of Poles in the rescue of Jewish people during the Second World War, in conditions where helping the Jewish population was rigorously prosecuted and even punishable by death (unlike in occupied Western Europe). The Ambassador also presented the history of the Museum the Ulm Museum of Poles Saving Jews located in Markowa and acquainted the invited guests with situation of Poles and Jews in occupied Poland. Ms. Irene Klass - witness of the Holocaust and a prisoner of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Nazi German Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau delivered a moving speech where she referred to the events of World War II and stressed how important it is to preserve the memory of the tragic events that led to the mass murder of millions of citizens.
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