German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Friday wrapped up a three-day visit to South Africa with a tour of a health centre named after a black activist who disappeared during the apartheid era, and lunch at a German-run factory.
Schroeder visited the Stanza Bopape clinic in Mamelodi township outside Pretoria where he laid a wreath at a memorial for Bopape, a youth activist with the now ruling African National Congress who disappeared while in police detention in 1988.
Schroeder presented the clinic with a fax and photocopier, saying: ”I hope it will help you reach out to even more people in your community.
”I commend you for your work and I thank you for allowing me to examine the sort of thing that I would not ordinarily see in my day-to-day duties.”
A group of drum majorettes from a nearby primary school formed a guard of honour for Schroeder, who shook hands with dozens of onlookers.
The tour of the clinic was punctuated by women ululating — a traditional honour reserved for dignitaries.
Schroeder also examined handicrafts produced by the local community to help support the clinic.
Schroeder’s motorcade then traversed the administrative capital to visit the German-run Lapple components factory at Roslyn, an industrial town to the west of Pretoria. The factory employs more than 1 000 people.
Interaction with the German business community has been a key feature of Schroeder’s visit. The 450 German companies in South Africa provide between 70 000 and 90 000 jobs.
Schroeder is due to leave from Waterkloof air-force base near Pretoria later on Friday for Ghana, the last leg of his African safari that has taken in Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa.
On Thursday, South African President Thabo Mbeki recalled the historic ties between the two nations during a banquet speech recalling that many South African towns bear names such as Berlin, Potsdam, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover Stutteheim and Braunswich.
He said the numerous South Africans of German descent ”gave us the right to claim that we are both South African and German”.
On a broader scale, Mbeki applauded Schroeder’s ”concern to support our continent to meet its political and social goals”. — Sapa-AFP