WELCOMING REMARKS BY AMBASSADOR THENJIWE MTINTSO

I have the great pleasure as the new ambassador to welcome you to the website of the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa in Italy.

On our website you will be able to find the latest news and developments of what’s happening in South Africa. Not onlywill you be able to navigate your way around the latest economic and political developments, but you will be able to gain much insight into our tourism, arts and culture, science and technology to name a few.

You will be able to feast your eyes on our beautiful coastlines, majestic mountains, our untamed savannahs and rolling landscapes. This will give you a better and clear idea of what our tourism has to offer.

Come and dance and sing with us and see what is happing with our arts and culture link, where we will tell you about the hip and happening acts and artists to come out of South Africa.

In the heart of the Karoo you can view our galaxy where the land meets the stars, through one of the few of its kind telescope. Learn more about the first man to perform the first heart transplant.

On our website we will take you through a scenic tour of our 9 beautiful provinces that offer you 9 different South African experiences of our diverse and unique ‘Rainbow Nation’.

Like you our Italians counterparts, we are a nation crazed by football, where football unites us all. I think it is safe to say that some of you will find the most exciting part of this website is the latest on the 2010 Football World Cup. I hope that you will be able to share in our excitement and preparation to the run up to one of the biggest sporting events in the world. With our website you will be able to keep updated on how the magnificent stadia are coming along and what attractions you will find along with the World Cup.

For those of you planning to make a trip to our beautiful shores for this event (and of course anyone one wanting to see our wonderful country) our website has all the information needed for visa applications.

I hope that within the realms of our website you will be able to find out all you need and wish to know about our amazing country.

TEAM (Together everyone achieves more)

Happy internet surfing and hope to see you soon.

Ambassador Thenjiwe Mtintso