The CEO of the Inclusive Society Institute, Daryl Swanepoel, attended the 246th Independence Day celebrations hosted by the Consul General of the United States of America in Cape Town, Todd Haskell, on 6 July 2022.
It provided an opportunity for the Institute to solidify its relationship with the Consulate, friends, corporates and other organisations. The Institute is mandated to promote international collaboration between the progressive forces of South Africa and around the globe. It is currently reaching out to likeminded organisations in the United States.
In his speech at the event, Consul General Haskell, reminded the gathering that, whilst nations can get absorbed in their own challenges, many of the challenges on not unique, but shared challenges which need to be overcome through international solidarity and cooperation.
Quoting from a speech by JF Kennedy at the University of Cape Town on 6 June 1966, he said: “I come here this evening because of my deep interest and affection for a land settled by the Dutch in the mid-seventeenth century, then taken over by the British, and at last independent; a land in which the native inhabitants were at first subdued, but relations with whom remain a problem to this day; a land which defined itself on a hostile frontier; a land which has tamed rich natural resources through the energetic application of modern technology; a land which was once the importer of slaves, and now must struggle to wipe out the last traces of that former bondage. I refer, of course, to the United States of America”.
