South Africa is the SADC appointed mediator in the Zimbabwean crisis and President Jacob Zuma’s government has of late been praised for making a truthful assessment of the situation in the country. President Robert Mugabe’s continued intransigence has been exposed and criticized by regional leaders.
This week, Ebrahim Ebrahim, the neighbouring country’s Deputy Minister of International Relations, said that top of his government’s agenda is the need to ensure that Africa economically develops and politically matures into the international systems of governance.
“Having been born out of struggle, our history compels us to refrain from pursuing foreign and economic policies that will make South Africa an island of prosperity in a troubled sea of under-development, war, poverty, disease and illiteracy,” said Ebrahim.
“South Africa’s contribution to the economic and political development, including the security of the Southern African region and the African Continent at large – is and will continue to be based on the spirit of mutual partnerships, and never as an aspiring hegemony.”
Ebrahim said that South Africa would continue to contribute to peace and development in Africa, including inculcating a culture of respect for human rights and sustainable development, principles that he said were fundamental to SA’s foreign policy and which would be “exported” to the Southern African region, the continent of Africa and the rest of the world.
“A cursory analysis of our relations with countries of Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) and SADC will reveal that since 1994, South Africa has considered regional economic relations in Southern Africa an essential component of its wider international economic relations,” he added.
“We have repeatedly committed ourselves to promoting regional cooperation along new lines that will correct imbalances in current relationships.
“SADC remains an immediate neighbourhood with which we wish to enhance trade; advance work on cross-border infrastructural development; and sectoral cooperation with a specific focus aimed at building the region’s production structures. We hold the view that Africa has the best possibility in this prevailing milieu to emerge from an era of political and social decline into a renaissance of hope and social progress.”
Post published in: News