EMSIE FERREIRA, Pretoria | Friday 8.30pm.
THREE Cabinet ministers left on Friday for a weekend of talks in the Democratic Republic of Congo designed to mend fences between the two countries.
Relations between DRC President Laurent Kabila and the South African government are frosty, with the embattled president accusing Pretoria of hypocritically calling for a negotiated solution to the conflict in his country while backing his rebel opponents.
Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Defence Minister Patrick Lekota and Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete are making the trip, the official said.
The foreign minister’s spokesman, Ronnie Mamoepa, told SABC state radio she would meet with her DRC counterpart, Abdoulaye Yerodia, and possibly with Kabila himself.
Dlamini-Zuma said Thursday that her trip to the DRC would be a long-delayed return visit, following a visit to South Africa by Kabila, Yerodia and several other ministers in July.
She added then that South Africa was concerned at attempts to portray it as siding with the rebels, who have been trying to oust Kabila since August 1998.
“There has been some kind of expression that wants to brand us as not neutral and not very friendly to the DRC government, which obviously is based on the fact that we didn’t take any sides,” she told reporters.
Dlamini-Zuma said South Africa would talk to all sides, with the aim of bringing them to the negotiating table.
She played a key role in getting the main rebel factions to sign a ceasefire in Zambia last year, but it has failed to halt the fighting.
Kabila’s army is backed by Namibia, Angola and Zimbabwe, while Rwanda and Uganda back the rebels. — AFP