OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Friday
THE South African government had barely finished congratulating US President-elect George W Bush when it reminded him of the United States’ role in fighting global poverty and war and in promoting development in Africa.
Throughout the late nineties, then deputy-president Thabo Mbeki developed a good relationship with his counterpart Al Gore under the presidency of Bill Clinton, when Africa took on new importance for Washington.
Mbeki and Gore chaired the US-South Africa binational commission, which started operating in 1995, which cleared the way for agreements in the areas of agriculture, conservation, environment, water, human resource development, education, science and technology, sustainable energy and trade and investment.
Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the status of the commission was now unclear as it had been set up with the Clinton administration.
“Now that President Clinton’s administration will be leaving office and a new administration would be coming in, it’s not automatic that that binational would continue,” she said.
“We in South Africa would like to acknowledge the close and substantial relationship with the United States of America that has developed under the current administration,” Dlamini-Zuma said in a statement.
“We look forward to working with President-elect George Bush in taking this relationship even further in addressing issues of poverty reduction, security and peace on a global scale,” she said.
Speaking from Brazil where he is on a state visit, Mbeki said he was confident that US policies towards South Africa would not be affected by Bush’s election.
Mbeki said he had met Bush in May while he was visiting the US.
“(We discussed) the need for us to sustain the relationship which essentially has been approached in the context of US policy, that has been approached in a bipartisan way,” Mbeki said.
The South African president would speak with Bush and Gore, Dlamini-Zuma said.
The US provided more than R350m in development aid to South Africa in 2000, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) said Thursday. – AFP