Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe cannot respond to a call to give the Dalai Lama a last-minute visa as this is not in his line of duty, his office said on Thursday.
In an open letter to Motlanthe on Wednesday night, the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre asked him to “announce unequivocally to the nation that a visa will be granted to His Holiness and he is free to travel to South Africa immediately”.
Motlanthe’s spokesperson Thabo Masebe said: “I have just read that letter and we cannot do anything with it.
“The deputy president does not get involved in the processing of visas and he is not going to get involved. So we are unable to do anything about that letter.”
The Dalai Lama’s visa application had been in the hands of the international relations and cooperation department (Dirco), whose spokesperson Clayson Monyela referred queries about the letter back to the deputy presidency on Thursday.
Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told reporters the matter had not been passed on to her department.
The international relations department had been handling it, given the high profile of the Dalai Lama.
“If a head of state or person of a certain stature applies for a visa, Dirco must be involved. So, they have dealt with this issue.”
The visa application was made in August. After a five-week wait for a response, the Dalai Lama announced from India on Tuesday he would cancel his trip because time was running out and the request appeared to be “inconvenient” for the South African government.
In the letter to Motlanthe, the peace centre’s CEO Dumisa Ntsebeza asked him to ensure the Tibetan spiritual leader was granted a visa by Thursday morning, to enable him to fly to South Africa in time for Tutu’s 80th birthday on Friday.
It was written in response to newspaper reports quoting Motlanthe as saying the government would have issued the Tibetan spiritual leader a visa if he had not cancelled his trip.
Motlanthe, who recently concluded a trip to China, denied there had been pressure from Beijing to deny the Dalai Lama a visa.
The government has been accused of bowing to pressure from China — its biggest trading partner — which calls the Tibetan spiritual leader a separatist and discourages foreign leaders from hosting him.
Ntsebeza said in light of Motlanthe’s comments, the foundation had requested the Dalai Lama to consider travelling to South Africa after all.
The Dalai Lama would have delivered the inaugural Desmond Tutu International Peace Lecture at the University of the Western Cape on Saturday. He also had engagements in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. — Sapa