Item 1013 - Speech at party celebrating 30 years of "True Love" Magazine

TRANSCRIPT

Khanyi, Ton, Koos
Members of Naspers
The Editorial Staff of True Love
Ladies and Gentlemen

Thank you for the invitation to join you at this birthday party, celebrating thirty years of existence of TRUE LOVE.

I am told that the magazine has undergone a few transformations in the course of these thirty years, and that it has changed its name a number of times as well.

The fact, though, is that it represents a remarkable achievement to have sustained a magazine of this nature in the South African market for thirty years.

And we must start by congratulating you and wishing you well.

Today TRUE LOVE is the biggest-selling monthly English-language women's magazine in the country, I am told. And the most widely-read women's magazine in the country!

Somehow I am not surprised to learn of those statistics and achievements. I know the young lady at the helm of the magazine, and with her talents and pedigree it could not but succeed so splendidly.

Congratulations, Khanyi. Your success is an inspiration to many women, black and white. You serve as a powerful role-model. You were only 22 years old when you took up the editorship of the magazine and turned it into the success story it is today. You send a message to young people, to women, to black people, to the entire country, that with hard work and dedication one can triumph over all difficulties and obstructions.

Naspers deserves our congratulations and appreciation for the boldness to employ such a young person and to entrust her with the responsibility and authority to lead this venture. May the success you achieved through your boldness inspire you to continue on that road of empowerment.

You are a remarkable South African company who from your sectarian origins and past had grown into a richly diversified operation. Those who only think of Die Burger and Huisgenoot when they hear the name Naspers will be rudely shaken when they learn that you are an international company, operating in many parts of our continent and the world. I had the privilege of visiting one of your technology operations in Beijing.

Publications like TRUE LOVE, DRUM, CITY PRESS, SUNDAY SUN and now DAILY SUN bear testimony to the inclusive diversity of the South African market you serve.

There is something symbolic about the fact that TRUE LOVE is such a leader in your stable of publications at a time when, I am told, magazine publishing is going through hard times. You, Khanyi and Naspers, are doing us proud by demonstrating where a key part of our future as a country lies - with young, black women.

Happy birthday, and may you continue to prosper and grow as you provide entertainment, information and education to an important sector of our society.

I thank you.