South Africa will take full advantage of Expo 2020 Dubai to share its innovations, opportunities and achievements, leveraging the power of the Expo to help the country reconnect with the world, His Excellency Saa’d Cachalia, Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa to the UAE, said on Friday. Visiting the South Africa Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, His Excellency Cachalia spoke to the Expo News Service on the sidelines of a performance of the award-winning and world-renowned Drakensberg Boys Choir, acknowledged and respected internationally for its exceptional music that connects across borders, cultures and languages.His Excellency said: “Our message to the world is that if you think about opportunity, then think about South Africa. It has lots of opportunities for everybody, particularly in terms of investments and trade, but also considering South Africa’s history, we’re now one of the most thriving democracies in the world in terms of political and human rights activity, supporting all aspects of human life… we’re a model for the world.”Describing his expectations for Expo 2020, His Excellency said: “We’re a developing country, and we have expertise. COVID came as we were projecting growth, and all that went flat – not only in South Africa but everywhere. We’re now using Expo to reconnect with the world. This is a multi-lateral platform, and we’ll take full advantage of the event, and our exposure to all the nations.” His Excellency added that South Africa has mobilised all foreign economic personnel from different missions around the world to be at the World Expo, leveraging the mega-event as a global platform for collaboration.His Excellency highlighted examples of South Africa’s legacy as an innovator, referencing the world’s first heart transplant and the invention of the yellow fever vaccine, its role as a sporting nation, and its tourism and culture.“Our young boys singing, it’s what South Africa’s about: a diverse group of people, black and white, singing in a language that’s an official language of South Africa, even though it may not be their own language,” he said.From the foothills of the Drakensberg, the all-boys choir has taken world stages by storm. Vaughan van Zyl, Conductor, Drakensberg Boys Choir, echoed the Ambassador’s thoughts: “When we perform traditional music, we feature a combination of different songs from different villages, telling their stories. The song that we performed, ‘Shosholoza’, we refer to it as our second national anthem, because it’s the one song that brought South Africa together in 1995 with Madiba [the late President Nelson Mandela], when South Africa won the Rugby World Cup. The song is actually from Zimbabwe and is about a steam train, but it has been adopted by South Africa, and it’s always at the end of our programme, so that people can identify it. We sing it in the auditorium of our school too, and anyone who was in our school choir can run out of the audience, onto the stage and join in with us.”Performing in Dubai “is surreal,” said van Zyl. “This is something you normally only see and hear about it in the media, and to be here… it’s fantastic and mind-blowing. And it’s wonderful to meet the people from here.”Khaji Kushumbayev, a visitor who hails from Kazakhstan that watched the Drakensberg Boys Choir performance, said: “The vibes, the authenticity – it’s just amazing. It actually describes South Africa from its roots and its diversity. It’s great.” On the universal language of music, he said: “I don’t need to know what they’re saying, because I can feel it.”