In this issue:

Mbeki Calls His State Visit to France a Success

Mbeki to West: Market Cannot Meet Africa's Development Needs, But You Can

Mbeki Proposal Is Blacked Out by French and SA Press

France, Southern Africa Plan African Infrastructure Projects

SA AIDS Plan Also Upgrades National Health Infrastructure

Will South Africa Be Next To Build Commercial Maglev?

From Volume 2, Issue Number 47 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Nov. 25, 2003
Africa News Digest

Mbeki Calls His State Visit to France a Success

Before returning home, South African President Thabo Mbeki called his Nov. 17-19 state visit to France a success, saying, "What is very, very good is that it is quite clear that there is a consensus across the political spectrum in support of that strength of partnership with South Africa and in support of that partnership with regard to meeting the African challenges."

Mbeki also said the business deals signed during the visit amounted to hundreds of millions of rands (the rand is at about 6.5 to the dollar). At the state dinner in Mbeki's honor, French President Jacques Chirac mentioned that an increase in economic cooperation in "promising sectors such as aeronautical engineering, nuclear power and aluminum [smelting]" had already come into being in recent years.

Chirac received Mbeki very warmly and, at their Nov. 17 joint press conference, said it was time for Mbeki to invite him to South Africa. This was Mbeki's fourth visit to France—and to Chirac—in 2003.

In addition to meeting with Chirac, Mbeki also met with Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, the mayor of Paris, the Senate president, the speaker of the National Assembly, and leaders of political parties. He was accompanied by First Lady Zanele Mbeki, Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin, Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya, and executives of state-owned companies.

Mbeki to West: Market Cannot Meet Africa's Development Needs, But You Can

In addressing the French National Assembly Nov. 18, Mbeki said that Africa would work for its renaissance whatever the obstacles, but, "it will be extremely difficult for us to achieve this goal of social and economic renewal of Africa without the support of France and the rest of the developed world."

Mbeki asked that international "structural funds" be established to help Africa develop, like the European Union's Structural Funds for Eastern Europe. He developed the rationale for the EU Structural Funds at some length, using the texts of EU documents to do so, and citing a study of the positive effects already achieved. He said, "Solidarity, economic and social progress, and reinforced cohesion were objectives all written into the preamble of 1997's Treaty of Amsterdam."

He concluded, "Reason tells us that it was correct for the EU to decide to intervene in the less-developed regions within the Union using public sector funds, since it was clear that the market on its own would not be able to solve the problem of underdevelopment.

"Reason therefore also tells us that in our approach to the challenge of African poverty and underdevelopment, we should apply the same correct reasoning.... Thus, we should repeat, using the words of the European Commission:

"'Solidarity and cohesion should sum up the values behind policy of the developed world towards Africa: solidarity because the policy aims at benefitting citizens of a continent that is economically and socially deprived, while cohesion recognizes that there are positive benefits for all in narrowing the gaps of income and wealth between the poor of Africa and we, who are better off.'

"... To free the 800 million Africans from poverty is to create great possibilities for the expansion of the world economy, for the benefit also of those who are better off."

Mbeki had begun by saying that Africans "have a right to make demands on a nation which cannot but be a great nation"; he ended by calling on France and the rest of the advanced sector to rise above their constraints and act as reason demands.

Mbeki Proposal Is Blacked Out by French and SA Press

Mbeki's address to the French National Assembly was covered Nov. 18 by AFP and Nov. 19 by Le Figaro, Le Monde, Le Nouvel Observateur, and French TV5, all of which cut out the centerpiece, Mbeki's proposal for "Structured Funds" for Africa, and reported only the frills. L'Humanite, the Communist Party paper, did not cover the address at all. The only press coverage of the proposal seen so far is a brief, but accurate, item from the South African Broadcasting Corporation, partly controlled by the government. Other South African media monitored so far have also blacked out the proposal, including the Mail & Guardian and News24.

France, Southern Africa Plan African Infrastructure Projects

The French Development Agency and the Development Bank of Southern Africa signed an agreement Oct. 18 by which each contributes half of a $3.35 million fund for preparatory studies for African infrastructure projects. The projects will be limited to the transport, energy, water, sanitation, and communications/IT sectors. They must have regional or continental impact, and priority will be given to public-private sector partnerships. It is being done in the name of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

SA AIDS Plan Also Upgrades National Health Infrastructure

On Nov. 19 the South African Cabinet approved a national program for treating HIV/AIDS that includes free anti-retrovirals. There will be at least one anti-retroviral service point in every health district within one year, according to the plan.

Over the next five years, more than half of the program's money will be spent on upgrading the country's health infrastructure. It will involve "recruitment of thousands of health professionals and a very large training program," Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told reporters in Cape Town after the Cabinet meeting.

South Africa has suffered from a brain drain of health professionals over the past decade.

Will South Africa Be Next To Build Commercial Maglev?

Reporting on the new speed record of 560 kph reached a few days ago by Japan's experimental maglev train MLX01 on a test track west of Tokyo, a leading South African daily, Mail & Guardian, wrote Nov. 17 that "at this speed, the train would travel from Johannesburg to Cape Town in just under three hours, and from Johannesburg to Pretoria in about six minutes."

The maglev experiment in Japan is part of a "government financed project to develop faster trains for a country that is already home to some of the world's speediest," the daily wrote. "Germany has developed a maglev train, which made its commercial debut in Shanghai, China, last year."

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