South African President Thabo Mbeki will not attend a Dakar summit aimed at accelerating an African initiative to increase government accountability and reduce poverty, his deputy minister of foreign affairs said on Tuesday.
Mbeki had been expected to be among a group of African leaders gathering in the Senegalese capital to discuss ways of improving the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad).
”No, he [Mbeki] won’t attend the Dakar meeting,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said in reply to a question in a briefing. He said the decision was not based on any friction between Mbeki and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.
”President Wade has felt that implementation has been too slow and this meeting was called as a summit to discuss how we can accelerate implementation,” Pahad said. — Reuters