Foreign Affairs South Africa

Syria calls for SA help in Middle East

2007-02-01T11:10:00.000-08:00

Mail & Guardian: 31 January 2007
Syria is hoping that South Africa can help it with key problems in the Middle East, its Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Faisal Mikdad, said on Wednesday.

Mikdad has been sent to South Africa as a special envoy of Syrian President Bashar al-Asad to deliver a letter to President Thabo Mbeki highlighting problems in the Middle East.

"The message looks at possibilities where we can work together to solve these problems," Mikdad said.

He met with South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad in Pretoria on Wednesday to discuss tensions in Iraq, Lebanon and between Israel and Palestine.

Pahad said South Africa believes that dialogue is necessary to solve the problems and will do anything possible to assist.

Mikdad arrived in South Africa on Tuesday and has already met Education Minister Naledi Pandor. He was also scheduled to meet Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils and Minister in the Presidency, Essop Pahad.

Tell Bush to go to hell

2007-01-26T22:11:00.000-08:00

Saturday January 27
“Tell the Bush government to go to hell.”

This was the response of the SA Communist Party (SACP) to allegations by the US that two South African men, Junaid Docrat and his cousin Farhad Ahmed Docra, are financing al-Qaeda activities.
The SACP said the US had no right to “arbitrarily” label the Docrats as terrorists, and in so doing undermine the sovereignty of South Africa.

The SA government was more diplomatic in their much-anticipated response to the saga.
Reacting to the US’s call that the men should be listed by the UN as terror suspects, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini- Zuma ordered yesterday that the process be put on hold by SA’s representatives to the UN.

She said: “The matter needs to be discussed further in bilaterals with the US authorities.”
Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad explained: “We want to make sure that anybody that goes on the list is on there for a good reason, because the consequences are so very serious.”
A listing on the UN’s list of terror suspects could lead to the Docrats’ assets being frozen, and prevent them from doing business or travelling overseas.

The SACP said yesterday: “It is the same Republican government that labelled the ANC as a terrorist organisation, and fully supported the apartheid regime.”

Unless the US can provide “credible evidence” to back up the terror allegations, the SACP calls on the SA government “and the millions of peace-loving South Africans to tell the Bush government to go to hell”.

The Docrats have maintained they are innocent, and emphasise that “our legal system is based upon the principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty”.

In the absence of details from the US on the reasons they are requesting the terror listing, the Docrats did not want to comment.

SA pair ready to speak out over terror claims

2007-01-26T22:09:00.000-08:00

January 24 2007
The two South Africans accused of having links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network will release a statement on Wednesday, their lawyer said on Tuesday night.

This follows an evening meeting between the two and lawyer Shaheed Dollie.

"We want to do this instead of causing a media frenzy," said Dollie.

Junaid Dockrat, a dentist from Mayfair, Johannesburg, and his cousin, Farhad Ahmed Dockrat, have been named by the United States
government as terror suspects with links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda and the deposed Taliban in Afghanistan.

"They are not on the list at the moment... the request to include them (by the US government to the UN Security Council) was only made on January 18," said Dollie.

On Tuesday evening, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was still "applying her mind on how to deal with the issue" of the two.

Dollie said he asked foreign affairs to clarify reports of plans to name them on the United Nations' list of suspected terrorists.

In an urgent letter to the department of foreign affairs, he said his clients were "confident that there is no factual basis whatsoever, which would justify their being listed on the so-called
'United Nations list of persons associated with al-Qaeda'".

However, as far as foreign affairs is concerned, no official correspondence has been forthcoming.

"The office of the minister has not received any official communique from the lawyers of the two South Africans listed by the UN Security Council for alleged links to al-Qaeda," foreign affairs
spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said on Tuesday.

Under UN guidelines, they face the freezing of their assets and bank accounts, and prohibitions on worldwide trade and travel.

Dollie added that media hype and negative publicity surrounding the two men had affected their personal lives, traumatised their children and negatively impacted on their businesses.

He also confirmed reports that both Junaid, Farhad and their businesses had been under surveillance.

"They've been under surveillance for quite a while now," he said, adding that they were not sure who was monitoring them.

According to a legal expert, South Africa - as a member of the UN - will have no choice but to act against the pair.

South Africa had to comply with the UN's guidelines, said University of the Witwatersrand law school senior lecturer Mia Swart.

"It is difficult to apply the construct of diplomatic protection to these men... South Africa has to comply with United Nations guidelines as a member state," she said.

The SABC reported that South Africa has until Friday to give the US government reasons why the two should not be on the Security Council's list.

We'll fight on

2006-12-27T11:36:00.000-08:00

Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, the wife of sex-pest former diplomat Norman Mashabane, will stand by her man despite a High Court ruling that said he should have been fired on allegations of sexual harassment.

Nkoana-Mashabane, the MEC in charge of local government and housing in Limpopo, said the family would challenge the department of foreign affairs through the labour court: "Elements in the media continue to pursue the unsubstantiated and disputed allegations that featured in internal proceeding in the department of foreign affairs more than three years ago, with an unexplained frenzy," she said this week.

"The family has experienced a testing and traumatic period in regard to the disputes and publicity surrounding our husband and father, Norman. Legal proceedings have been instituted against the department," she said.

"The false and defamatory allegations of our family's adversaries will be tested fully in court."

Earlier this month, Judge Jerry Shongwe, the deputy judge president of the high court in Pretoria, ruled in favour of an application by Lara Swart to review the decision by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the foreign affairs minister, in April 2004, to let Mashabane off the hook on sexual harassment claims, after he had been found guilty by a departmental disciplinary hearing.

Shongwe said Mashabane's appeal against his dismissal for sexual harassment had been set aside, adding that the minister's decision would be replaced with the following: "The appeal is dismissed. The finding of guilt on three charges of sexual harassment and the sanction of dismissal are confirmed."

Dlamini-Zuma was ordered to pay Swart's legal costs, estimated to be around R500 000.

Nkoana-Mashabane told SAFM earlier that she loved her husband and nobody knew him as well as she did, adding the family would be spending "a private and nurturing time" together during the holidays.

Despite requests for interviews, Mashabane has refused to to speak.

"Why should I chat with you? You have repeatedly called me a sex pest."

SADC Action Group on Zim mired in controversy

2006-12-27T11:32:00.000-08:00

CONTROVERSY surrounds a SADC Ministerial Action Group (MAG) reportedly appointed by the regional body’s chair, Lesotho, to compile a report on the ‘Zimbabwe crisis’, with sources saying Harare would not accommodate the body as it was commissioned outside the organisation’s Summit.

The South African media have in the past weeks reported that SADC chair, Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili of Lesotho, after consultations with South African President Thabo Mbeki, commissioned a three-country group to report on the situation in Zimbabwe.

However, the sources said it increasingly looked as if the MAG might never visit Zimbabwe, as there was no consensus among various SADC member States over how to proceed, adding that there was a "media blackout on what was now taking place behind the scenes".

According to Foreign Affairs and diplomatic sources, a rift was emerging in SADC over how to engage Zimbabwe, with some members like "Namibia, Mozambique and Tanzania emphasising non-interference while others were pushing for a tougher line" including the commissioning of an MAG.

"SADC is not agreed on the mandate of the MAG and whether or not to accept any of its findings. At the same time the Zimbabwe government has told the SADC secretariat it will not allow the MAG into Harare as it does not have legal standing within the regional body. At present, no one seems to want to own up to being behind the setting up of the group. It has been difficult getting confirmation from Lesotho and South Africa on what is taking place. It is not even clear who is in this MAG but the general belief is that the three countries are Lesotho, South Africa and Botswana," The Sunday Mirror was informed.

Fuelling the controversy and confusion, officials at the SADC secretariat in Botswana are apparently unaware of the composition of the group, its mandate and to whom it will report its determinations, though suggestions in the South African media are that the MAG will present a report to an emergency Summit. There has also been speculation that the MAG’s report will result in a referral of Zimbabwe to the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, which is currently chaired by Tanzania, a close ally of Harare.

Contacted for comment, Leefa Martin, the SADC head of communications said she had no information on the MAG adding "it seems no one has concrete information" on the status of the group. She said she had been unable to get any details on the matter from her colleagues in the secretariat and referred further inquiries to a ZK Masanja who is the SADC national contact point in Tanzania’s ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At the time of going to press, Masanja had not responded to questions sent to him by The Sunday Mirror some three weeks ago. Deputy Information and Publicity minister Bright Matonga said: "We have not had any official communication on the matter and so as far as we are concerned there is no issue." Efforts to get a comment from Lesotho’s principal secretary for Foreign Affairs Motlatsi Ramafole through the department’s contact person Mamoliehi Moetetsi were fruitless, as he too did not respond to questions sent to his office some three weeks ago. South Africa’s Foreign Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma also did not respond to questions forwarded to her on the issue.

Our Foreign Affairs insiders said it was highly unlikely that the MAG would in actual fact visit the country as such commissions and their agendas were decided on at Summit. "There appears to be nothing official vis-à-vis the MAG’s mandate and its proposed visit to Zimbabwe. It is not that we are against anyone coming into the country and seeing things for themselves but it is just that these things have to be done procedurally so that they can be respected," said an insider. The Foreign Affairs insider said it was consequently surprising that Lesotho had then decided to go ahead and create an MAG "against the wishes of the Summit". Two weeks ago in his address to the Zanu PF People’s Conference held in Goromonzi, President Mugabe said: "Even our neighbours have no power to change the government in Zimbabwe. In the same way that we will never go to Zambia, Malawi, South Africa and Mozambique telling them who should rule there, no one can tell us who should rule here."

At the most recent Summit in Maseru, Lesotho, SADC Heads of State said they did not feel compelled to interfere in Zimbabwe, preferring to give the Benjamin Mkapa mediation between Harare and London a chance to work, something that did not go down well with opposition forces in this country. Since the onset of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme six years ago, there have been a number of calls for SADC and the African Union to take a leading role in criticising Zimbabwe with American President George W. Bush once calling President Mbeki his "point man" on Zimbabwe. However, this pressure has largely been resisted with the two bodies often pointing out they would not meddle in the internal affairs of a fellow Member State. At the African-Caribbean-Pacific and EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Barbados in November, SADC delegates once more rebuffed calls for the regional grouping to attack Zimbabwe.

Mashabane takes foreign affairs dept to court

2006-12-23T10:56:00.000-08:00

Norman Mashabane, the former ambassador to Indonesia, is taking the foreign affairs department to court. Mashabane, who has been convicted of sexual harassment, accuses his former employer of unfair dismissal.

Last month, the Pretoria High Court re-instated a departmental guilty verdict against the former ambassador on 22 charges of sexual harassment. This comes after Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the foreign affairs minister, overturned an initial guilty verdict.

Mashabane's family says they will stand behind him. “As a family we went through a difficult time regard the saga and decided we need to support Norman as he takes the department to court regarding ill treatment through the whole thing. We believe he is innocent and needs to get a day in court so he can clear his name,” says Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, the family spokesperson.

Diplomats demand protection

2006-12-23T10:55:00.000-08:00

The diplomatic corps in South Africa has sent a strong letter to the South African government complaining about its continued failure to take any action to protect diplomats from crime.

This includes a complaint that the government has three times postponed scheduled meetings with the diplomats to address the crime problem and how to increase their protection.

The third meeting scheduled for December 11 between diplomats and Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was postponed indefinitely this week.

Prior meetings with her or with Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula were supposed to happen in November and early December but did not. Several ambassadors and other diplomats and their staff have become victims of crime recently.

On Tuesday, the dean of the diplomatic corps, Libyan ambassador Dr Abdullah Alzubeidi, wrote to Dlamini-Zuma and other senior foreign affairs officials on behalf of all embassies and international organisations represented in South Africa to "express their grave concern about the high level of violent crime".

The letter expressed "deep regret and profound disappointment" that various meetings between the diplomats and the South African government had been postponed three times "despite the urgency of the situation and the radical multiplication of crime against diplomatic and consular representatives.

"It may be noted that in spite of past and continuing official dialogues with the South African authorities, there are no visible signs that effective steps have been taken to ensure the security of the diplomatic and consular communities."

The letter said the diplomats expected the South African government to fulfil its responsibilities to protect diplomats, as spelt out in the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations.

The letter asked the government to respond to the letter, stating the "specific and immediate measures" that it would take "to protect the lives and property" of diplomats.

The department of foreign affairs could not be reached for comment on Wednesday night.

Sex pest Mashabane quits Limpopo post

2006-12-23T10:21:00.000-08:00

Sex pest Norman Mashabane has resigned with immediate effect from his post as political adviser to Limpopo premier Sello Moloto.

This followed a Pretoria High Court judgment last week which reinstated a guilty verdict on several sexual harassment charges against Mashabane.

The court’s decision also turned the spotlight on Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who overturned a disciplinary court decision implicating Mashabane in sexual harassment of embassy staff.

Moloto made the announcement yesterday, saying Mashabane had asked to be relieved of his duties. “He has asked to be relieved of his duties to focus on the problems he is currently experiencing,” said the premier’s spokesman, Mogale Nchabeleng.

The sexual harassment incidents took place when he was SA’s ambassador to Indonesia. Mashabane was found guilty by a disciplinary committee in 2001 of 22 counts of sexual harassment that included stroking the buttocks of an employee, molesting a staff member in a lift and making suggestive motions with his tongue to another.

The panel recommended he be fired, but he appealed against the judgment and was allowed to continue in his post pending the outcome.

However, Dlamini-Zuma, acting as the appeal authority, reversed the findings, suggesting that Mashabane’s name was being dragged through the mud for exposing motor vehicle fraud at the embassy.

The Public Servants Association welcomed the high court decision, saying it cleared the name of member Lara Swart, one of those who laid a complaint of sexual harassment against Mashabane.

Mashabane started working as the premier’s political adviser in November. Opposition parties and unions have called on Dlamini-Zuma to apologise to the victims and women who might have been dissuaded from pursuing a claim of harassment for fear of being accused of inventing the incident.

Sex pest victim tells of years of hell

2006-12-23T10:11:00.000-08:00

Having enduring three-and-a-half years of hell after she laid a complaint of sexual harassment against diplomat "sex pest" Norman Mashabane, feisty Lara Swart says she now just wants to get on with her life.

"It's unbelievable, I'm so relieved the case has finally come to and end," Swart told Weekend Argus shortly after the Pretoria High Court on Friday ruled Mashabane should have been fired for sexual harassment.

"It's been a nightmare. Now I just want to get on with my life and concentrate on my career in the department (of foreign affairs). This incident has been extremely painful... it's been hanging over me and my family for so long," she said, adding that she could not have got through the ordeal with the support of her husband and family.

"As a woman, there are certain things we can and must do when we are wronged, many times we ask ourselves whether it was all worth it," she said. "Today, I say yes because I am very pleased with the outcome," said the Pretoria-born diplomat. "I feel like a new person," she said.

The trauma of the sexual harassment and her subsequent complaint led to Swart accepting a posting to South Korea, while the Public Servants Association fought to take the matter - which was characterised by lengthy delays - to a conclusion.

Swart said she was surprised that her long nightmarish legal battle to ensure Mashabane was punished, was eventually over in less than five minutes. Judge Jerry Shongwe, the deputy judge president of the High Court in Pretoria ruled in favour of an application by Swart to review the decision by Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in April 2004 to let Mashabane off the hook on sexual harassment charges after he had been found guilty of by a departmental disciplinary hearing.

Shongwe said Mashabane's appeal against his dismissal for sexual harassment of Swart has been set aside, adding that the minister's decision would be replaced with the following: "The appeal is dismissed. The finding of guilt on three charges of sexual harassment and the sanction of dismissal are confirmed."

Dlamini-Zuma was ordered to pay Swart's legal costs, estimated to be as high as R500 000.

"I'm so glad it is finally over, it's been three long years of ups and downs, but we did not give up," said a relieved Swart shortly after the announcement at the verdict on Friday.

Swart told Weekend Argus that the court's ruling, coming in the middle of the government's 16 Days of Activism Against Women and Child Abuse, would serve as encouragement to many.

"It gives women hope that our system is working. Many victims of sexual harassment wonder whether it is worth pursuing charges against their perpetrators," she said.

"But they may now say: 'See what Lara Swart has done', and follow my example. If we don't speak out, things will continue," she warned.

Mashabane, who forcibly kissed and groped Swart during a function at his residence in May 2003, was found guilty after a disciplinary hearing that recommended he be dismissed. This was the second sexual harassment case against the former diplomat.

In 2001, at least six Indonesian women laid several cases of sexual harassment against the diplomat. In the charge sheet before the disciplinary hearing, Mashabane was alleged to have had sex with a government employee in the back seat of a chauffeur-driven car; patted a domestic worker on the behind while she was doing the dishes; and showed embassy staff members pornographic pictures.

Gender activists monitoring the case said at the time that it was ironic that the disgraced ambassador was being protected by a woman.

Although Mashabane - whose wife Maite Nkoana-Mashabane was the former high commissioner to India and is MEC for local government and housing in Limpopo - was found guilty on 21 counts of sexual harassment, he remained in his post pending an appeal.

It was during the appeal that the incident involving Swart took place.

In November 2003, Mxolisi Nkosi, the presiding officer of the disciplinary inquiry, informed Mashabane of his dismissal after being found guilty of acts of sexual harassment against Swart.

In papers before the court, Mashabane boasted to staff within the embassy that nobody could take action him because he had been appointed by President Thabo Mbeki, and that he would never have sex with a white woman. "It's disgusting," he is alleged to have said.

In April 2004, the minister said she would uphold an appeal brought by Mashabane against his dismissal for misconduct.

Swart said she was glad the long-running saga had ended. "It shows if you believe in putting right an injustice, one could only do so through pursuing the matter by using the right channels, no matter how long it takes."

She said she was pleased with the support of her employers, the department of foreign affairs.

Mbeki is not respecting international law

2006-11-20T23:13:00.000-08:00

The African Christian Democratic Party has called on President Thabo Mbeki to respond to claims he is breaking international law by allowing deposed Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide to incite violence, from South Africa, among his followers in his homeland.

"These are serious charges that warrant an immediate response, and we call on the South African president to clear his name," ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe said in a statement on Monday.

Aristide has been in exile in South Africa since May 31 this year. He and his family are living, at taxpayers’ expense, in Pretoria.

According to media reports earlier on Monday, Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has accused Mbeki of allowing Aristide to incite violence from South Africa.

At least 50 people have died in Haiti in recent weeks in violence blamed on Aristide supporters.

The BBC quoted Latortue as saying "no respectable president would allow a person in his territory to organise violence in another ... Mr Mbeki is not respecting international law."

Meshoe said the ACDP is shocked at the South African government’s silence over the matter.

"Our government has always said that it will not allow South Africa to be used as a springboard for destabilising other countries.

"Why is ... [it] so quiet when there are such serious allegations emerging against a former head of state ?" he said.

The president’s office declined to comment and referred the South African Press Association to the Department of Foreign Affairs, which was expected to issue a statement later on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance has added its voice to the call for Mbeki to respond to Latortue’s allegations.

DA leader Tony Leon said in a statement on Monday that the charge of not respecting international law is serious and needs immediate investigation.

"The president must provide a full account of Mr Aristide’s activities since his arrival in South Africa. If he can show that there is no substance to Mr Latortue’s allegations, then our government should respond to what would amount to a slur against the president.

"If, however, there is evidence that Mr Aristide ... is indeed inciting violence in Haiti, then the government must revoke Mr Aristide’s guest status, and President Mbeki should apologise to the United Nations and to its peacekeeping forces," Leon said.

Don't kill Saddam

2006-11-08T04:30:00.000-08:00

Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and his cronies deserve severe punishment and should spend the rest of their lives behind bars, but he should not have received the death sentence, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said.

Spokesperson Patrick Craven said: "The Congress of South African Trade Unions condemns Saddam Hussein as a brutal dictator. He cruelly oppressed, tortured and murdered thousands of people in order to maintain their ruling elites in power."

Saddam persecuted anyone who opposed his rule, and ruthlessly suppressed the aspirations of the Shia and Kurdish peoples, the federation said.

Craven said the death penalty is "a barbaric form of punishment" that is rightly outlawed by the South African Constitution. "It does not serve as a deterrent and dehumanises all those involved in its implementation."

Cosatu also has serious reservations about whether the trial of Hussein had been free and fair. "He fully deserves to be put on trial, but the process has seemed to be more of a public-relations exercise than a judicial process."

There is "even a suspicion about the fact" that the announcement of the verdict came a few days before crucial United States congressional elections.

Craven said: "Turning the media spotlight on the crimes of the man used by [US President] George Bush and [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair as a hate figure to justify their invasion of Iraq could divert attention away from the fact that he is now known not to have possessed weapons of mass destruction.

"It might thus help Bush's Republicans get a few more votes, at a time when opinion polls categorically show that most American people disapprove of the Iraq war.

"A death sentence will also do nothing to advance the cause of democracy in Iraq. The trade unions, banned by Saddam, are still outlawed in 'democratic' Iraq.

"The invasion by the imperialist powers has ensured that the interests of the Iraqi people remain secondary to those of the multinational oil companies and all the other international business interests who are exploiting the country's natural resources and labour, in order to extract the maximum profits
and impose their hegemony on society," said Craven.

Cosatu remains "resolutely opposed to the invasion of Iraq, demands the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops and calls for a genuine democracy that allows free trade unions, protects human rights and defends the national interests of all the peoples".

Sex pest case delayed yet again

2006-11-01T07:11:00.000-08:00

AN APPEAL to uphold sexual harassment findings against former ambassador Norman Mashabane was again delayed in the Pretoria High Court.

Mashabane was to have appeared in the court but the case was put down for December 1, Public Servants’ Association (PSA) deputy general manager Manie de Clercq said. He said the delay was to give the judge a change to read documents filed in the case.

The case has been delayed several times since it was brought to court in January last year.

The PSA and foreign affairs department employee Lara Swart have asked the Pretoria High Court to overturn Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s decision to uphold Mashabane’s appeal after disciplinary hearings found him guilty on 22 sex harassment charges.

At the time he was ambassador to Indonesia, where Swart, one of several complainants, was stationed.

Mashabane was found guilty at an initial hearing in 2001 on a battery of charges that included stroking the buttocks of an employee, molesting a staff member in a lift and making suggestive motions with his tongue to another.

The panel recommended he be fired, but he appealed the judgment and was allowed to continue in his post pending the outcome. In June 2003 another charge was laid against him, and he was again found guilty.

The findings were reversed by Dlamini-Zuma, acting as the appeal authority, who suggested that Mashabane was being dragged through the mud for exposing motor vehicle fraud at the embassy.

The voice of a nation

2006-10-31T02:15:00.000-08:00

President Mugabe of Zimbabwe has murdered more black Africans than even the South African apartheid regime. In just one region of Zimbabwe, in just one decade - in Matabeleland in the 1980s - he was responsible for the massacre of 20,000 civilians. This is the equivalent of a Sharpeville massacre every day for more than nine months.

There was a global campaign against apartheid. Why isn't there a similar global campaign against Mugabe's murderous tyranny? Ooops, silly me. The killer is the wrong colour. He's a black murderer, not a white one. Besides, it is racist and neo-imperialist for anyone in the west to criticise the leader of a developing country, even a bloody butcher like Mugabe. Well, that seems to be the perspective of some of those on the left.

It also appears to be the view of the South African government, judging from the pitiful performance of the South African foreign minister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, in London.

Speaking at the London School of Economics, she failed to address the two biggest crises facing southern Africa - the HIV pandemic and the chaos and brutality in Zimbabwe.

Dr Zuma spoke about the importance of international solidarity. She praised the late ANC leader Oliver Tambo, stating that he was an "ardent internationalist" and a person who believed in "true solidarity".

This was stomach-churning stuff coming from a foreign minister who, together with the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, does nothing while Zimbabwe burns.

It was also too much for the Free Zim Youth (FZY) activists in the audience.

"We were sickened to hear Dr Zuma talk about international solidarity when her government is refusing to show solidarity with the persecuted people of Zimbabwe," said Alois Mbawara, one of the organisers of FZY.

He led the disruption of Dr Zuma's lecture, in protest at her government's failure to do anything meaningful to pressure Mugabe to hold free and fair elections, and to halt his regime's policies of detention without trial, rape, torture and murder.

During the 1970s and 80s, the ANC called for international solidarity against apartheid. The world responded and the ANC has since said that global support helped the victory over white minority rule.

Despite having benefited from an international solidarity campaign to win black freedom, the ANC is now refusing to show solidarity with the freedom struggle of the people of Zimbabwe. The ANC had a Freedom Charter for South Africa. Don't Zimbabweans deserve a freedom charter too - and shouldn't the ANC be helping them win it?

The truth is that President Mbeki's "quiet diplomacy" has failed. Mugabe's abuses have increased, not diminished, with millions at risk of starvation because they are being denied food. Why? They don't get food because they live in regions of the country that voted for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. It is political cleansing.

The ANC once led a heroic liberation struggle. Now it seems to be turning its back on the ideals of liberation and internationalism. Some of its leaders have become complacent and corrupt, suddenly accruing fabulous wealth. The government in Pretoria spends vast sums on armaments, while claiming there is not enough money to combat HIV, fund land reform and treat Zimbabwean refugees humanely.

Soon afterwards, more black Zimbabweans erupted from the audience. After a few minutes, all were either ejected or left of their own free will. They had made their point. Dr Zuma was able to complete her miserable lecture.

Although Dr Zuma was greeted by warm applause when she arrived, by the time she finished her speech she had alienated much of the audience. They were riled by her arrogant, heartless refusal to express even a few words of concern for the Zimbabwean people. Particularly reprehensible was Dr Zuma's parting shot: that Zimbabweans in Britain had no right to speak out about the situation in their homeland. This is a bit rich coming from Dr Zuma, who spent much of the apartheid era in exile in the UK.

While the protest continued outside the LSE, Dr Zuma was humiliatingly smuggled out of a side exit to a waiting unmarked car. She scuttled away like the shamed foreign minister she is.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, MPs and civic leaders have been brutalised while peacefully demonstrating for fair wages, against rocketing prices and mass evictions, and for basic human rights.

South Africa is blocking calls for the UN to investigate Mugabe's abuses. It has endorsed Zimbabwe's flawed elections, even though they were conducted in an atmosphere of violent intimidation by Mugabe's henchmen.

Free-Zim youths embarrass Zuma

2006-10-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

South Africa’s foreign affairs minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma had a night to forget in central London. Pressure group Free-Zim Youth UK made sure they expressed their displeasure with her government’s handling of the Zimbabwean crisis. Dr Zuma was addressing the London School of Economics on possible reforms for the United Nations following her country’s election to a non-permanent seat on the Security Council. The youths repeatedly disrupted her lecture with chants of “ANC betrays black Zimbabwe.”

Five minutes into Dr Zuma’s lecture Alois Mbawara who leads Free-Zim stood up to challenge her asking, “Why are you doing nothing to help Zimbabwe? The ANC called for solidarity against apartheid. But the ANC government is showing no solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe.” When asked by Howard Davies the chair of the meeting to keep quiet, Mr Mbawara replied, “We can’t keep quiet while Zimbabwe is suffering.” Stewards were called in to usher him outside.

Gay rights activist Peter Tatchell then walked onto the stage with a placard reading “Mbeki’s shame. ANC betrays black Zimbabwe.” Security officials wrestled Tatchell out of the venue only for another activist Wellington Chibanguza to stand up from the balcony shouting “Why do you (Dr Zuma) and your government persist with quiet diplomacy when it has failed to deliver?’ Chibanguza was also ejected from the meeting. Four women activists from the Free-Zim youth then started making catcalls during Dr Zuma’s speech resulting in their removal from the venue.

Zuma looked rattled and courted even more controversy by saying Zimbabweans were sitting in London doing nothing instead of taking matters into their own hands. She said ‘Zimbabweans in Britain have no right to speak out about the situation Zimbabwe.’ This did not go down well with the activists who pointed out that Dr Zuma herself had spent much of the apartheid era in exile in the United Kingdom. Tatchell said in a statement “Given the level of the audience disquiet, the organisers curtailed the promised question and answer session and Dr Zuma was humiliatingly smuggled out of a side exit to a waiting unmarked car. She scuttled away like a rat from a sinking ship.’

SA calls for Security Council reform

2006-10-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

South Africa will enhance peacekeeping and conflict resolution in Africa while serving on the United Nations Security Council, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said.

In her first address since South Africa was elected to take a seat on the Security Council, she said in a lecture at the London School of Economics that the government's vision for a prosperous, peaceful, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and united Africa would influence its work on the council.

Dlamini-Zuma also called on the Security Council to be reformed "in order that it can be in a position to address a broad range of challenges that face humanity today".

"I suggest that we also need to continue with the reform efforts and seek fundamental changes to the power imbalances within the United Nations," she said.

"Security Council reform is proving difficult to achieve despite the fact that its agenda has been growing over the years in both volume and complexity. I strongly believe that reform would strengthen the Security Council."

She said that the Security Council would draw more legitimacy with a broader representation of African, Asian and Latin American countries serving as permanent members.

Dlamini-Zuma also said the Security Council should not undermine the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which was the sole and legitimate body for the verification of nuclear safeguards agreements.

"The United Nations should also seriously review the role of sanctions as a useful tool that needs to be used judiciously and with care," Dlamini-Zuma said.

"Sanctions should support peacemaking and peace building rather than impede it."

SA is scheduled to take up its seat in January and hold it for two years.

Nigerian stowaways survive risky journey to SA

2006-10-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

Two Nigerian stowaways who survived an eight-day voyage from the Côte d'Ivoire on the outside of a car-carrier ship arrived in Port Elizabeth with about a cupful of water left.

The National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said that one was clutching a bottle with about 300ml of water left in it, which had to be prised from his hand.

"He was hanging on to it for dear life," said NSRI operations coordinator Gavin Riddle.

"It's absolutely amazing that they survived."

An NSRI team took the two survivors off the ship in Port Elizabeth harbour on Wednesday evening.

Christiaan Baradise (22) and Isaac Cyrin (28) were taken off the Washington Highway along with the body of a third stowaway, known only as Emmanuel.

The stowaways were clinging to the side of the ship, in a tiny wet compartment meant for the rudder shaft, said Riddle.

They were spotted by the tug crew while the car carrier was docking at about 5pm on Wednesday.

"It's a very dangerous place to be at any time, especially when berthing," said Riddle. "They were both very dehydrated, hypothermic, very shocked, very confused and dazed."

The compartment was about 1m to 1,5m above the water level.

"Every time they went through a big swell they would have been soaked."

They told their rescuers they climbed aboard when the ship docked in Côte d'Ivoire and lost their food after about four days at sea.

The ship's agent, Pranesh Oodhrajh, said the ship docked in Abidjan on October 17, so the stowaways spent eight days at sea.

Baradise and Cyrin are recovering in the St George's hospital in Port Elizabeth.

"Both men are conscious and in a stable condition," said hospital spokesperson Marietjie Shelley. She would not comment further.

The two Nigerians asked Minister of Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula for political asylum when she visited them in hospital on Thursday.

"They have indicated they want to apply for political asylum. We are going to facilitate that process for them," said the minister's spokesperson, Cleo Mosana, from Port Elizabeth.

"We will ensure that the correct process will be followed."

SA wants to end veto power in UN Security Council

2006-10-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

The newest members of the United Nations Security Council starts throwing their weight around, making all sorts of demands in this very exclusive club.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the foreign affairs minister, says Africa believes the veto power in the United Nations Security Council should be done away with.

At present, all five permanent members of the council being Britain, China, France, Russia and the US can veto any UN resolution. Dlamini-Zuma says this system is against the principles of democracy which the world body should uphold. She says it is not democratic for one country to trash a decision taken by a majority of players in the movement.

South Africa has been given a non-permanent seat for a two-year term on the UN Security Council. This does not carry veto powers. Dlamini Zuma says all non-permanent members should be given veto powers if the system is not corrected.

Côte d’Ivoire pullout based on new UN status

2006-10-20T06:02:00.000-07:00

Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said that SA had not ended its role as mediator in the Côte d’Ivoire conflict as a result of pressure.

She defended SA’s decision to pull out, saying “it was our own assessment” to do so.

SA withdrew as a mediator this week, with President Thabo Mbeki’s spokesman saying that SA’s two-year membership of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, which begins next year, would create conflicts of interest with its role in Côte d’Ivoire.

SA’s pull-out came just days after rebel group New Forces complained of SA’s bias toward President Laurent Gbagbo and pressure on SA to withdraw from within the Economic Community of West African States.

Dlamini-Zuma said that SA withdrew on its own accord, based on the view that it would be able to better exercise judgment on the matter when it came before the security council.

Côte d’Ivoire has been split since rebels took control of the north of the country four years ago after an aborted coup to topple Gbagbo. Four thousand French troops and a UN peacekeeping force of 7000 are in the country to prevent open war. Mbeki began his African Union (AU)-endorsed efforts at mediation two years ago.

Speaking at a press conference in Pretoria with the visiting Guinea-Bissau Foreign Minister Antonio Isaac Monteiro, Dlamini-Zuma said the security council was involved in the issue and SA could vote without hindrance if it was not longer trying to broker a settlement.

The security council is due to decide next week on whether to impose targeted sanctions on Côte d’Ivoire. However, in view of the AU’s decision this week to extend Gbagbo’s mandate to stay in power by a year, diplomats regard it as unlikely that the council will vote on these sanctions.

ANC's betrayal of Zimbabwe

2006-10-16T01:56:00.000-07:00

A UK civil rights activist urged South Africa to take a more positive stance against the ruling government in Zimbabwe.

It also urged the international community to rally together to end what it described as President Robert Mugabe's tyranny.

Speaking at a demonstration organised by FreeZim Youth at South Africa House in London Peter Tatchell, a prominent civil rights activist, blamed South African president Thabo Mbeki for his quiet diplomatic stance on the situation in Zimbabwe.

In a highly-charged speech Tatchell said the South African struggle to free Nelson Mandela, black political prisoners and to end apartheid would have not been possible without international solidarity and the uncompromising contribution of the Zimbabwean people.

According to Tatchell, during the apartheid era the UK community met at South Africa House for more than four years demonstrating against the evil apartheid regime of P.W. Botha. Other demonstrations were held across the world in New York, Paris, Berlin, and Sydney during that era to end apartheid at the request of the ANC.

"The ANC's betrayal of Zimbabwe is so shocking and so shameful," said Tatchell blaming President Mbeki for turning his back against Zimbabwe.

Tatchell also said Mugabe's tyranny is comparable to, if not worse, than the evil apartheid system that existed in South Africa.

Comparing the Sharpeville massacre of 1960, where 69 blacks were killed when South African police opened fire on approximately 300 demonstrators protesting against pass laws, and the Gukurahundi atrocities, Tatchell said 20,000 people massacred in Matabeleland is a "Sharpeville every day, every week".

He called on the international community, especially the ANC, to take measures against the Zanu PF government in Zimbabwe, without which freedom will be difficult to achieve in the country

Patience ran out for SA diplobrats

2006-10-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

In the end, diplomatic immunity could not save envoy Donald Morule and his family from being ejected from Britain. He survived being hauled off in a British police van after a complaint of child abuse. His diplomatic immunity saved him again when one of his sons was accused of robbery.

But the patience of the British government finally ran out at 8pm on July25 this year when four London police constables were “head-butted, scratched and punched” as they tried to arrest another son and a friend.

The incident was the last straw for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which had been informed of at least four run-ins between police and Morule’s family in just two years.

This week, Morule — the third-highest-ranking official at South Africa’s High Commission in London — will become the first South African diplomat in the democratic era to be ejected from Britain.

Morule and his wife Montlenyane, who is deaf, were said to be in tears this week as they left their north London home and moved into a Charing Cross hotel. They have until Tuesday to leave the UK. Only about half a dozen diplomats out of the 23000 based in Britain are “asked to leave” each year.

It is an ignominious end for Morule, who had risen quickly through the ranks of the Foreign Affairs Department. He has been at the High Commission for more than four years and had his tenure extended to the end of next year.

Known as a ruthlessly efficient administrator and the ambitious “strong- man” of the High Commission, Morule is notorious among staff for talkativeness and long explanations. However, all he would say when the Sunday Times approached him this week was: “I can’t comment about anything; bye, bye, bye.”

Earlier in the week, however, Morule appeared more pugnacious in a South African newspaper article, claiming he had been unfairly victimised by the British nanny state. He accused the UK government of kicking him out in “collective punishment” for his sons’ alleged “minor” misdemeanours.

But one British government official said the crimes were far from minor.

“If he felt the crimes were minor, and that he was being collectively punished, he could have raised the immunity on his sons and allowed the criminal justice system to test [their innocence] and the seriousness of the offences. They chose not to raise it.”

A spokesman for the Foreign Office refused to discuss the details of Morule’s case, but said: “We take our good relationship with the SA High Commission seriously; we wouldn’t want to do anything to upset the apple cart. So the fact we took the very serious step of asking this diplomat to leave gives you some sense of how seriously we took these allegations.

“There were enough serious offences for us to ask for the removal.”

The Metropolitan Police define “serious offences” as those which, “in certain circumstances”, could carry jail sentences of more than 12 months.

Morule’s sons alone are believed to have accounted for three such offences in the past year.

Morule’s nightmare began two years ago when a neighbour reported him to police for allegedly beating his eldest son, a teenager, for taking his Mercedes for a spin without permission or a licence. Having removed Morule for questioning in a police van, Metropolitan Police reported the incident to the Foreign Office. Morule apologised.

Then, in October last year, the Foreign Office received a report about a “serious offence” allegedly involving one of Morule’s sons after arrests were made in a mugging that featured a knife. The High Commission rejected a request by the Foreign Office to drop the boy’s immunity so police could investigate. One of the diplomat’s sons was sent back to South Africa.

As a result, Morule received an official warning that his own status would be in jeopardy if any further offences involving his family were brought to the attention of the Foreign Office.

While Morule this week attributed his ejection to his 13-year-old son being cautioned after being found with a toy gun at school, the Foreign Office appeared to have no knowledge of it.

Instead, the family’s life in London was ended by an incident that began outside a retail shop, the Co-operative Store, in north London’s Finchley on July 25. Two boys, aged 16 and 17, were robbed, and called for help. Four police officers responded and were attacked by two suspects, one of them allegedly Morule’s middle son, aged 15.

Three boys were arrested. One of them, aged 15, is facing charges of robbery and assault related to the incident, while another, aged 13, is facing charges of robbery. They appeared in court on July 27.

But Morule’s son was released “with no further action” after his father intervened and invoked immunity. Morule then sent all his sons back to South Africa, but by then it was too late. British patience had worn thin.

Despite the humiliating return to South Africa, Ronnie Mamoepa, spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, said Morule would not face disciplinary action.

“There is no charge against the diplomat. He has been recalled on the basis of a mutual agreement between the South African government and the British government in the interest of consolidating our relations.”

Mbeki's indecent activism and bias revolted the heads of states

2006-10-13T05:40:00.000-07:00

Leaders in the West African regional bloc Ecowas (Economic Community of West African States) have decided to end the mediation role of South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki in Côte d'Ivoire, seen to be aligned to President Laurent Gbagbo.

The leaders in Ecowas "decided to set aside the South African mediation" said Ivorian New Forces rebel leader Guillaume Soro in an interview with the daily Nord-Sud.

"The Ecowas recommendations are firm: Thabo Mbeki is no longer mediator in Côte d'Ivoire," Soro said, on the basis of recommendations unofficially published after last week's Ecowas summit in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

"The Ecowas heads of state decided to set aside Thabo Mbeki, judged too close to the Côte d'Ivoire case. They have therefore asked the African Union president for new, more neutral mediation," a European diplomatic source confirmed to Agence France Presse.

"They believe that as long as Mbeki is the mediator, Gbagbo's opponents will refuse any concessions," said the diplomat.

"Thabo Mbeki's indecent activism and his bias have revolted the heads of states, who would not want to accept a new South African imperialism in West Africa," Soro said.

The African Union (AU) asked Mbeki in November 2004 to mediate in the crisis amid little progress in the peace process, more than a year after the foes signed the Marcoussis peace accords.

The president of the AU Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, at the weekend defended Mbeki's role in Ivory Coast, saying his contribution "would be conclusive at some given time".

"As long as there is no harmony among the AU, Ecowas and the mediation, we cannot find a good solution to this question," said Konare.

Both the opposition and rebels last month expressed their disquiet with Mbeki's mediation.

The opposition described Mbeki as a "staunch supporter" of Gbagbo while rebels outrightly asked for the appointment of a new AU mediator.

Gbagbo in his speech in Abuja threw his weight behind Mbeki, who "has done his work with serenity and determination in spite of the verbal attacks of which he been wrongfully and regularly the object".

"He has acted with tact, respect and diplomacy to his interlocutors and has obtained, thanks to that, results," said Gbagbo.

"He is a very good mediator and a proud African [and] I will not accept that his name be dragged through the mud," Gbagbo said.

The AU Peace and Security Council meets on Tuesday to consider recommendations from the 15-member Ecowas, which in turn should be forwarded to the UN Security Council for a decision on the fate of the one-time bastion of stability in the region.

Côte d'Ivoire has been split into a rebel-held north and a south controlled by the government since a brief civil war that broke out in 2002 when the rebels tried to topple Gbagbo.

Diplomat kicked out

2006-10-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

A top South African diplomat has been kicked out of Britain after allegedly whisking one of his sons out of the country to shield him from a police investigation, according to diplomatic sources. Another son had earlier been sent home for alleged armed robbery.

The senior official at South Africa's high commission in London was given 28 days to leave and is due back in South Africa on October 17, according to sources close to the high commission.

Ronnie Mamoepa, the spokesperson for the department of foreign affairs, confirmed that the official had been recalled "by mutual consent between the British and South African governments.

"As far as the department of foreign affairs is concerned, the official being recalled is still an official in good standing."

However, according to sources at the South African high commission in London, British authorities asked the South African government last year to send home the diplomat's elder son, aged 17, after police caught him and some of his friends allegedly holding up a youth at knifepoint and robbing him of his MP3 player.

These sources said that this year the diplomat's family fell foul of the law again when British police sought his second son, 15, who had been caught at school with a spray gun. This time the diplomat flew back to South Africa with his son before police could question him.

When the diplomat returned from South Africa, British authorities asked the South African government to recall him for this alleged attempt to defeat the ends of justice, these sources said.

The diplomat confirmed in a telephone interview that he had been recalled.

Asked to comment on the claims that he was being recalled because he had tried to frustrate the police investigation of his son, he insisted that he had cleared his decision to return his son to South Africa with Lindiwe Mabuza, the high commissioner in London, and Ayanda Ntsaluba, the director-general of foreign affairs.

Asked if the British authorities had taken this into account before acting against him, he said: "I don't know how fair their procedures are."

He then referred all further enquires to the department. Sources at the high commission said that Mabuza had tried hard to stop the diplomat from being recalled.

However, a source in the legal section of the department said there was nothing that they could do: "If a country has decided that it doesn't want you, there is nothing much we can do but advise you to pack up and come back home."

Another senior official in the department said that the alleged offences that Britain presented to the South African government were serious enough that the government had no choice but to agree to recall the diplomat.

The diplomat and his sons enjoyed diplomatic immunity from prosecution in Britain but under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a host country may declare a diplomat "persona non grata" and ask his government to recall him without giving reasons.

Sources close to the diplomat said he was "utterly devastated because he had been looking forward to returning to South Africa only at the end of 2007 when the term of his boss, Mabuza, also expires".

The diplomat had been posted at South Africa's London mission since 2001. His posting was originally scheduled to end in July this year but had been extended after a strong recommendation by Mabuza, sources said.

Some London high commission staff, however, seemed relieved at the diplomat's departure. They alleged he had shown a dictatorial style in his dealings with staff, so much so that he had acquired the nickname "Mugabe".

Trying really hard to look busy

2006-10-05T02:39:00.000-07:00

THE foreign ministers of SA and the Dominican Republic yesterday signed a declaration of intent in Pretoria to improve trade relations between the countries. That shouldn't be too hard if you look the numbers.

Dominican Republic Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso is in SA while President Thabo Mbeki is hosting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Troncoso said his country had decided to establish a diplomatic mission in Pretoria. He said: “SA has one of the most promising and sophisticated emerging markets in the world. We are looking into investing in the trade market.”

Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said there were huge opportunities for further bilateral co-operation. More could be done to improve on what had been achieved. Exports from SA to the Dominican Republic amounted to R8,97m last year while SA’s imports from the Dominican Republic came to R12,13m.

Hard at work trying to look busy

2006-10-05T02:19:00.000-07:00

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh followed in the footsteps of passive resistance founder Mahatma Gandhi on board a train travelling to Pietermaritzburg on the route that the Indian
icon was thrown off a train for sitting in a whites-only compartment, back in 1893.

"I came to breathe some of the air that transformed Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi)," Singh said on arrival at Pietermaritzburg station on Saturday, having travelled from Pentlich station where he boarded the train.

Singh had arrived at Durban International Airport earlier in the afternoon. Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad and KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sibusiso Ndebele had welcomed him.

With love from Russia - nothing at all

2006-09-19T04:00:00.000-07:00

DESPITE a visit this month to Moscow by a 64-strong delegation of South African government and corporate officials -- the largest ever to come to Russia -- relations between the two countries appear to be cooling.

On the Russian side, there is unspoken frustration at the year-long campaign by President Thabo Mbeki to secure a South African seat in the expanded United Nationas (UN) Security Council, without sufficient consensus from other UN members.

Sources in Moscow are aware that Mbeki made the admission of SA to a permanent seat on the security council a personal priority this year.

High-level African sources, who attended the Group of Eight (G-8) summit at Gleneagles, Scotland, in early July, said they believed Mbeki, there as an African Union observer, had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for Russian support for SA's security council ambitions.

Regarding talk of a UN seat for SA, the Russian foreign ministry said they "do not have such operational information".

Mbeki then ordered Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to Moscow to meet her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on July 12.

She was told in no uncertain terms that Russia would not support expansion of the security council unless there was demonstrable backing for this from the entire UN membership -- which Dlamini-Zuma could not demonstrate.

The Russian foreign ministry issued a statement confirming that Dlamini-Zuma had made the security council seat her priority.

Dlamini-Zuma returned to the same issue when she met Lavrov in Moscow early this month.

By then, most UN representatives had concluded that the move for African permanent seats on the security council had been stopped by US action.

Why then were Mbeki and Dlamini-Zuma repeating their request for Russian backing?

Lavrov's ministry issued a new statement, acknowledging Dlamini-Zuma's visit, and repeating its line that reform of the UN should be carried out "on the basis of the widest consent, and what is even better, the consensus of member states".

There was nothing new in the Russian position, but officials at SA's foreign affairs department said they believed the Russians were "still open" on security council reform, adding that "the situation is changing all the time".

It has been customary for the two governments to issue a detailed report on the results of their annual Intergovernment Commission on Trade and Economic Co-operation (ITEC). This did not happen after the latest meeting, and only a brief press conference was held to discuss the results.

The company that the regime keeps

2006-09-13T05:01:00.000-07:00

South Africa is choosing to hang out with some very strange people.

South Africa has aligned itself with some of the most undemocratic regimes under President Thabo Mbeki's rule, according to Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon.

South Africa achieved a mixed scorecard in the five years since 9/11, since the country had often been "on the wrong side of history".

While Mbeki had to be praised for condemning the attack, government actions have failed to back up Mbeki's call for the international community to unite against global terrorism.

The President had taken the cause of Africa into the forums of the world, but at the same time impeded progress by declining "to develop a no-nonsense approach to human rights violators and to the kleptocracies of the world".

Under Mbeki, South Africa has repeatedly chosen to align itself with some of the most undemocratic pariah regimes wherever we may find them.

South Africa voted in the UN human rights council in favour of motions of "no action" on human rights violations in Sudan, Belarus and Zimbabwe, but supported the nomination of states like Libya and Zimbabwe to the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee. The latter action cemented South Africa's reputation "as a friend to grossly undemocratic nations that boast some of the worst human rights abuses on the planet".

Leon also accused the government of doing a poor job in ensuring South Africa does not present itself as a safe haven for terrorists. South African passports, due to their ease of forgery, were the preferred choice of a number of terrorist organisations.

Leon singled out government's policy on the Middle East as an example of choosing "our friends" for the wrong reasons. "Through our actions, we have given either direct or tacit endorsement to states and organisations who are quite clearly a threat to world security," said Leon. He accused the ruling ANC of a one-sided analysis of the region's problems, including a lack of analysis of Hezbollah.

Presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said the presidency would not "honour" Leon with a reaction "except to express sadness at a South African who descends into the lower depths of cheap political point-scoring on a solemn occasion such as the fifth anniversary of September 11".

How to make the Western world unhappy

2006-09-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

The wrong sort of friends can get you into trouble.

South Africa's choice of forging close ties with Iran is sending "a clear message to the world" that it has chosen the wrong friends, official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon said on Monday.

At no stage during the recent meetings between South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in South Africa had any mention been made of the fact that Iran "is actively supporting Hezbollah and neither was its hostility towards the state of Israel ever mentioned".

Leon charged that it "is entirely unclear what national or international interest our diplomatic engagement with Iran is serving".

By sending the message that South Africa is choosing the wrong friends, "we risk alienating our most important partners, without whom we would have little or no export industry nor few friends with real influence".

"We therefore need to be more strategic and more generally non-aligned when deciding how we will act in relation to the major problems and issues currently facing the world.

"As we commemorate the tragic events of five years ago, we would be well served to reflect on our own actions over the same period and resolve to act in future to strengthen international security.

"As a nation, who fought so hard to achieve its democratic freedoms, we should take more care about the company we keep on the world stage. If we are to retain our high moral standing in international affairs, there can be no compromises in the friends we cultivate.

"The democratic values that inspire and inform our Constitution and our state demand no less of us than this."

Leon said further that: "Instead of honestly confronting the facts and standing up to those countries and organisations who are a direct threat to the liberal-democratic values we purport as a nation to uphold, we are becoming the chief regional apologist for countries such as Iran."

He charged that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad had denied the fact that Iran armed and funded Hezbollah.

Under the current leadership of President Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's moral high ground in international affairs "has simultaneously been advanced and undermined", said the DA leader.

"The final verdict remains uncertain: on the one hand he has taken the cause of Africa and the developing world into the chancelleries of the West and the forums of the world, but he has also retarded our progress by declining to develop a no-nonsense approach to human rights violators and to the kleptocracies of the world.

"I say this because under Mbeki, South Africa has repeatedly chosen to align itself with some of the most undemocratic pariah regimes wherever we may find them."

Leon noted that South Africa had voted at the United Nations Human Rights Council in favour of motions of "no action" on human rights violations in the Sudan, Belarus and Zimbabwe.

Greasing the wheels for foreigners

2006-09-08T08:02:00.000-07:00

After twelve year of affirmative action, there is now a skills shortage. It seems that skilled whites have left the country or found other things to do. There are in fact lots of them who are unemployed and unable to find work. Instead of offering them employment, the regime is now looking into importing people of the right colour.

Foreigners would no longer need to apply for transit visas for South Africa, the home affairs department announced on Thursday. "I have decided to suspend the requirement for transit visas for all countries," Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said in a statement. "In the meantime, I will commission a study into international best practices relating to transit visas."

The minister also announced an intention to extend the two-year limit for intra-company staff transfer work permits to five years.

Mapisa-Nqakula said revisions became necessary due to problems in executing the amended Immigration Act, "particularly in relation to the attraction of skills and foreign investment".

She has received inputs from chambers of commerce and business representatives. This revealed that transit visas, used to protect the country's borders, were having an impact on the profit margins of airlines operating in South Africa.

Transit visa requirements for citizens of certain countries were reintroduced in December last year. As for intra-company transfer permits, the minister said she agreed the two-year limit was too short. An amendment was required to the Immigration Act to extend the period.

New member of the big boys club

2006-09-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

This will make South Africa lots of new friends (and enemies) when it comes to pass.

IT IS almost certain that for the first time SA will sit on the United Nations (UN) Security Council from January next year. It is a post that stands to raise SA’s diplomatic profile during its two-year term on the council. In that position SA could easily make close friends and build prestige, but could also gain enemies. And it comes at a time when the effectiveness of multilateralism as a way of dealing with world security issues is being seriously questioned, particularly because of the UN Security Council’s inability to do anything about continuing atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan due to the position taken by two of its permanent members, Russia and China.

As a nonpermanent member, SA will have one vote on the council, and it will not have a veto right like the five permanent members. The US, the UK, France, Russia and China are the five permanent members and the remaining members fill 10 seats for a period of two years and are not eligible for immediate re-election.

SA receives considerable attention from the permanent five members because of the country’s role in African issues, particularly mediation in Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi. SA will battle to keep African issues on the agenda over the next two years. Lebanon, the Palestinian issue and North Korea are likely to dominate the agenda of the council for the next few years.

The African issues likely to come before the council are Darfur, Somalia and the Ethiopia-Eritrea dispute. But on certain issues, such as the critical state of neighbouring Zimbabwe, SA may see its role as preventing the issue coming before the council.

SA was against taking the matter of Iran’s nuclear programme — which the permanent five suggest is a cover for a nuclear weapons programme — to the security council. One has to ask how outspoken SA will be on Iran while on the council. While Russia and China are taking a softer approach to Iran than are the US, UK and France, all are united on continued security council involvement in the issue. SA is hardly in a position to actively challenge that and, should it do so, it could face problems from the permanent five.

Read more

SA nuke moves alarm US

2006-09-05T13:52:00.000-07:00

SA sticking up for Iran, getting cosy with Russia and reviving its nuclear enrichment program. It all adds up to a really astute move: George W will have to add a fourth member to the axis of evil

South African support for Iran held firm this week as a United Nations deadline for Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment programme expired, potentially triggering sanctions by the UN Security Council or the United States and its allies.

A flurry of diplomatic activity followed last week’s visit to Pretoria by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottak, and the renewed insistence by South Africa on Iran’s “inalienable right” to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Iran is high on the agenda of President Thabo Mbeki’s meeting next week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Department of Foreign Affairs announced this week.

Russia is the major supplier to Iran’s nuclear programme and is eager to broker a diplomatic solution to the crisis. It is part of the “P5+1” coalition of permanent members of the Security Council -- plus Germany, which has offered Iran economic incentives to halt its enrichment activities, but is hesitant about sanctions.

As the crisis escalated last week top US nuclear diplomat James Schulte met South Africa’s representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency, Abdul Minty, in Pretoria. He was followed this week by representatives of the EU 3 -- the British, French and German component of the P5+1. No details of either meeting have been released, but during his trip Schulte publicly called on the South African government to bring its influence to bear on Iran.

Citing South Africa’s 1991 decision to end its nuclear weapons programme he told University of Pretoria’s Centre for International Political Studies: “South Africa’s example and leadership position you to help Iran’s leaders to think hard about Iran’s future and to consider two different models: the first, North Korea -- nuclear-armed, but impoverished, isolated, insignificant; the second, South Africa -- nuclear weapons-free, but secure, dynamic and a respected player in your region and the world.

South Africa’s response, guided by complex domestic and geopolitical considerations, contained little to please the US. Local officials stress that the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) decision to report its concerns about Iran’s programme to the UN Security Council was -- in a departure from precedent -- reached by majority vote, not consensus. They say Iran has no legal obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to engage in further “confidence-building measures”.

Writing in the latest issue of ANC journal Umrabulo, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad argues that the nuclear weapons states (the US, Britain, France, Russia and China) are undermining the “balance of rights and obligations” underpinning the treaty.

During a treaty review last year South Africa sought a text balancing criticism of the nuclear weapons states’ failures with concerns about proliferation, particularly the contribution of “non-state actors” like the AQ Kahn smuggling network to the illegal spread of weapons technology.

Instead, Pahad stresses in apparent reference to George W Bush’s administration, proposals were made “to impose restrictions on the inalienable right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes [including] a cap on new enrichment and reprocessing facilities”.

South Africa’s sensitive diplomatic moves dovetail with the development of plans to expand the capacity of the local nuclear industry.

The timing of Friday’s announcement by Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica that South Africa was considering restarting uranium enrichment has not escaped Western diplomats. But the government insists that there is no connection between backing for Iran, activism around the Non-Proliferation Treaty and South Africa’s plans to expand its nuclear energy capability.

“We believe in multilateralism; that is the principle we are defending here,” one official said. But others in the government are privately irritated by US-led attempts to limit the use of highly enriched uranium for civil purposes and to further cap enrichment by non-nuclear weapons states.

Security of supply will become increasingly important as the proportion of nuclear power in the energy mix grows. Brazil, the South Africans point out, recently began enriching uranium.

Briefing editors in Pretoria this week, Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin said a study was being conducted into the “full uranium value chain”, from fuel production to medical research.

Erwin stressed that enrichment would be for peaceful purposes. “South Africa has said unequivocally that we have withdrawn our capacity for weapons-grade enrichment. Whether we should now go back to enrichment for civilian uses is a matter we are going to have to study very carefully,” he said.

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