The Chinese Consulate-General Cape Town held an event in Newlands on Friday to honour the resolution made by the National People’s Congress of China to commemorate September 10 as official Teachers’ Day.
Consul-general You Wenze began his speech by paying tribute to all teachers, lauding them for their meaningful contributions in education.
“Teaching is one of the oldest, greatest and most sacred professions in the history of mankind. Teachers are hard-working and selfless people,” he said.
You continued to thank the delegation present for their embrace of Chinese culture and language, attributing it to the strengthening of China and South Africa.
“Between people, language is a bridge to connect each other, and tools to exchange ideas,” he said.
You said the People’s Republic of China’s President Xi Jinping expressed in a letter to Durban University of Technology students that “he was pleased to see through the joint of efforts of both sides, the educational and cultural exchanges between South Africa have yielded fruitful results, and a large number of South African youth have gained better understanding of the Chinese history and culture”.
You said President Xi stressed that China and South Africa, both important developing countries, have forged a special comrades-plus brothers friendship.
You said the sixth visit of the Chinese president ahead of the BRICS Summit on August 22, at the invitation of President Ramaphosa, was fruitful and contributed to the strengthening of the two countries.
“They reached consensus on a series of issues. Twenty-five co-operation agreements and MOUs were signed,” he said.