South African Foreign Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma is to leave South Africa on Tuesday on a four-legged visit to Chad, Angola, Nigeria and Botswana, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.
Zuma will attend and Chair the Ordinary Session of the Executive Council Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the African Union in N’Djamena, Chad from Tuesday March 4-7.
The meeting is the third for the Executive Council of Ministers, with the first having been held in Tripoli, Libya to consider proposals for the amendments to the Constitutive Act of the AU.
The Ministers’ proposals were tabled at the recent Extra-Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. During this meeting, the Interim Chairperson, Amara Essy will provide reports on the African Union Commission and the high-level intergovernmental meeting on the prevention and combating of terrorism in Africa, the DFA said.
The Executive Council will also receive a report from the Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) on the financial status of the African Union. Dlamini Zuma will also form part of the South African government delegation led by Deputy President Jacob Zuma to the Nepad Heads of State Implementation Committee Meeting on March 7 and 8 in Abuja, Nigeria.
Issues on the agenda include reports by Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu (the Chairperson of the Nepad Steering Committee); the implementation of Nepad infrastructure; the review of development effectiveness between Africa and its partners and the African Peer Review Mechanism, including its objectives, standards, criteria and indicators.
In Angola, Minister Dlamini Zuma will attend the SADC Council of Ministers meeting from March 2003 9-10 in Luanda. The Council of Ministers will, apart from organisational issues, discuss progress made in the restructuring of the organisation, the operationalisation of the African Union, Nepad, and the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
In Botswana, Dlamini Zuma will form part of President Mbeki’s delegation on a State Visit from Tuesday March 11-13. The state visit was postponed during September 2002, due to the hosting by South Africa of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg.
The visit comes in the wake of deepening bilateral political and economic relations between the two countries. During the visit, Mbeki is expected to hold bilateral discussions with his Botswana counterpart, President Festus Mogae to discuss among others issues the African Union, Nepad, the restructuring of SADC and bilateral and regional issues of mutual concern.
It is envisaged that both countries will finalise the Agreement on the Establishment of a Joint Permanent Commission for Co-operation (JPCC), the DFA said. – I-Net Bridge