Former president Nelson Mandela has told outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair he looks forward to welcoming ”a young man like you” to the club of retired presidents when Blair leaves office on June 27.
However, Mandela warned Blair that some of its members — himself chief among them — ”only became active after stepping down from public office”.
Mandela and his wife, Graca Machel, met Blair and his wife, Cherie Booth, at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton, Johannesburg, on Thursday afternoon during Blair’s last official visit to the country.
Media arrived more than an hour early to be assured of front-row places but were reduced to scrumming for position after a sniffer dog was brought in to inspect their equipment.
It was another free-for-all when the busload of press travelling with Blair arrived from the University of South Africa’s business school, in Midrand, where he had given an address,
In the end, not even control barriers could hold the media back as they spilled on to the ground at Mandela’s feet when he greeted Blair: ”Ah, Tony, how are you? Why are you getting younger every day?”.
”You look nice,” Mandela told Booth — who has come in for much criticism over her wardrobe. She was wearing a blue-grey, knee-length coat edged in white, with white shoes decoratively buckled.
”Would you recognise me if you saw me again,” he asked British High Commissioner to South Africa Paul Boateng.
”I’ve got a strong weapon here,” Mandela told an aide, raising his heavy walking stick, at her concerns about the encroaching journalists and photographers.
”When are you retiring?” he asked a familiar face, turning to greet another from the South African Broadcasting Corporation as he shuffled forward, wearing one of his trademark shirts, in gold with a red Aids ribbon at his throat.
”We are delighted Prime Minister Blair has decided to honour us with a visit on his last trip to Africa,” Mandela read from a prepared statement.
”He has been a very good friend of Africa,” he said.
Blair has already visited Libya as part of his farewell tour and arrived in South Africa from Sierra Leone, the second stop on his itinerary, on Thursday morning.
He is scheduled to hold talks with President Thabo Mbeki on Friday before heading back to Britain.
Wishing Blair the ”very best for his future”, Mandela expressed confidence that his commitment to, among others, poverty eradication, would continue after he was out of office.
”I know that your energy, passion and youth can still play a big role in international affairs and we look forward to the contribution you will continue to make,” Mandela said.
Before his short, private talks with Mandela, Blair described it as ”an honour and privilege” to stand next to Mandela.
He thanked the elderly statesman ”for everything he has done in his life, but also for showing that it is possible for things to change”.
That South Africa is as strong as it is today is in no small measure due to the leadership of Mandela, Blair said.
”The reason I am here in Africa is because next week we have the Group of Eight [G8] summit [in Germany] to which South Africa, of course, will come as the G8 plus five,” Blair said.
His visit has been widely criticised in Britain as a money-wasting junket.
Mandela did not re-emerge after his meeting with Blair.
It was Booth and Machel, in a ruby suit, who appeared from the Foundation building, walking arm in arm.
”Thank you so much,” said Machel, embracing Booth, who clasped in one hand a Mandela biography.
Machel waved goodbye to the British couple as they were whisked away to their next stop — the Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto. — Sapa