South Africa was faced with a Sino-African poser over the visit, starting today, of Chinese vice-president Zeng Qinghong. The five-day visit, which will include a meeting of the bi-national commission between the two countries, was prepared months in advance. Zeng, making his first call on South Africa, was assured red-carpet treatment, including the much-coveted presidential suite at the Sheraton hotel in Pretoria.
Meanwhile, Egyptian officials were trying to secure the facility for their President, Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian leader has never visited South Africa.
To the chagrin of his fellow Africans, he has stayed away from their capitals for 11 years. This follows an assassination attempt on Mubarak in Addis Ababa in 1995.
Mubarak’s vehicle was fired at shortly after he arrived to attend an Organisation of African Unity summit. The motorcade turned around and went back to the airport, from where Mubarak sped home.
Ethiopia failed in its bid to get Sudan to extradite three Egyptian dissidents suspected of staging the assassination bid.
Mubarak has avoided travelling in Africa since then. He has missed three presidential inaugurations and the launch summit of the African Union.
This has led to mounting criticism of Egypt’s role in Africa. Mubarak has even stayed away from meetings of the five-man New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) steering committee.
The Egyptian president was pointedly left off the African delegation that participated on the fringes of the G8 summit this month.
Egyptian officials have clearly been irked by aspersions cast on their ”African-ness”. ”No one doubted our commitment to the continent when we fought at the United Nations and in other international forums against apart- heid and other forms of colonial oppression,” said a senior Egyptian envoy. ”We fought, at great cost to ourselves, for many years. It hurts now to be told that we are only Africans when it is convenient to us.”
Mubarak has recently had second thoughts about travelling in Africa and is preparing to come to South Africa. ”We thought about [coming to] the inauguration [of Mbeki] but our security people were not happy with the arrangements.
”Besides, an [official] state visit would make a stronger [statement] about the regard we have for South Africa and its role in the continent,” said the envoy.
”But when we went to the South African authorities, we were disappointed at their response. They do not seem to understand our well-founded security concerns. There are fundamentalist elements in this country very hostile to what the president stands for.”
Egypt has not forgotten that it lost former president Anwar Sadat to religious extremists in 1981.
”There is only one venue that suits our security people, who have studied the situation in great detail. [The South African authorities] suggested some other venues, but none of these are suitable. The presidential guest house might have sufficed but it is being renovated. At one stage we were tempted to ask whether our hosts really wanted President Mubarak here.”
The Egyptian leader’s visit has reportedly been postponed until next month — when the presidential suite will be available.