ELAINE MONAGHAN, Cape Town | Friday
MADELEINE Albright has launched probably the last big tour of her four years as US Secretary of State, promoting Aids awareness and American interests in southern Africa.
Unlike her last three sub-Saharan Africa trips, which took in areas of conflict and the scenes of embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, she will visit three states seen in Washington as success stories – South Africa, Mauritius and Botswana.
A senior State Department official said Albright would reaffirm the importance of relations with these three ”exemplary democracies”.
One message from her Africa stops will be to President Bill Clinton’s successor to follow his example of putting extra focus on Africa, once he leaves office on January 20.
Apart from meeting SA President Thabo Mbeki and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma – who belongs to what Albright calls her exclusive club of women foreign ministers – and visiting HIV/Aids centres, she will also look ahead to implementing the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
Passed this year by Congress, it will benefit 34 countries by lifting quotas and tariffs for textile imports.
Washington sees economic improvement as key to improving prospects of slowing a rate of HIV infection which has affected more South Africans than any other nation – 4.2 million people, or about one in 10 of the population.
But the infection rate is highest in Botswana, where about a third of 15-49 year-olds are estimated to have HIV/Aids.
The end of apartheid in South Africa opened the door to US aid which from 1994-96 totalled $600m, tailing off to an average $45 to $60m since then with $54.5m set aside for next year.
”One of the important things that we want to consider as we talk to Mbeki is how we want to strengthen and solidify the bilateral relationship in the years to come,” the State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
The Department official said the challenges facing the next administration would be to maximise the benefit from the trade bill and promote strategic investment more actively. – Reuters