GERMAN President Johannes Rau arrived in Pretoria on Monday for an official visit and will hold talks with his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki in the morning. South Africa’s acting minister of foreign affairs, Zola Skweyiya, met Rau on his arrival, said the official, Manusha Pillai. The German embassy in Pretoria said the four-day visit reflected “Germany’s special interest in the South African transformation process”. Rau’s visit follows a trip to Germany by Mbeki in 2000 and last year and a meeting of the third South Africa/Germany binational commission in Germany also last year, the embassy said in a statement. The German leader, who plays a figurehead role in his country, is accompanied by members of the German government as well as by representatives from political, social and cultural sectors. South Africa’s foreign affairs department said Germany was one of the country’s main trading partners, with a 12,1% share of South Africa’s total external trade. Some 400 German companies operate in South Africa and the European country has committed about 240-million euros ($213-million) in financial and technical cooperation since 1994. – AFP
Saturday January 19, 2001