Africa News blog
African business, politics and lifestyle
Was South Africa right to deny Dalai Lama a visa?
By Isaac Esipisu
Given that China is South Africa’s biggest trading partner and given the close relationship between Beijing and the ruling African National Congress, it didn’t come as a huge surprise that South Africa was in no hurry to issue a visa to the Dalai Lama.
Tibet’s spiritual leader will end up missing the 80th birthday party of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a fellow Nobel peace prize winner. He said his application for a visa had not come through on time despite having been made to Pretoria several weeks earlier. (Although South Africa’s government said a visa hadn’t actually been denied, the Dalai Lama’s office said it appeared to find the prospect inconvenient). Desmond Tutu said the government’s action was a national disgrace and warned the President and ruling party that one day he will start praying for the defeat of the ANC government.
It’s the second time the Dalai Lama has been unable to honour an invitation to South Africa by Tutu after failing to make it to a meeting in 2010.
South Africa will certainly win more plaudits in Beijing, which last week agreed to $2.5 billion in investment projects with during a visit by South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe.
But pro-Tibet activists say South Africa is undermining its credentials as a country of freedom and democracy, established after the end of white minority rule a generation ago.
from Reuters Soccer Blog:
World Cup hopefuls head up for air
World Cup organisers had plans to spread the 32 finalists for the 2010 tournament across South Africa, giving every corner of the country a chance to feel a little of the fever close at hand.
While the matches are only being played at 10 venues in nine cities, the team bases would have allowed for a wider spread, with the opportunity to watch a training session becoming almost as valuable a commodity as a match ticket for star-starved supporters away from the World Cup mainstream.
South Africa has a sparking coastline, lots of resorts of varying standards plus the interior of the country also enjoys a sophisticated tourist infrastructure.
There are many options from which teams can choose a base for the 2010 tournament and the major countries, qualified or not, have already been to South Africa to make their selection. Some coastal towns have done extensive marketing to try and attract a major football-playing nation to their location and a chance to share in the World Cup spotlight.
But to the horror of the 2010 organisers the vast majority of teams are plumping for a place at altitude, for the distinct advantage they feel it gives them.
Most national coaches, who have already been to South Africa on inspection visits, have demanded they stay and train up on high ground in Gauteng, the province that incorporates the greater Johannesburg and Pretoria area, where the air is thinner and the training therefore more effective. It is likely the vast majority of the teams will be cloistered together in a radius of some 150 sq km.
Only France, Sweden and Paraguay have elected so far to set up a coastal base, although so far only the latter have secured qualification to the 2010 tournament.
This is the same China and South Africa that are quick to criticize Israel as Arpathied. Now they are refusing the Da La mai, visa into South Africa. You know the funny thing about a country’s foreign policy? It is all about hypocrisy. Today Russia says free Palestine, tomorrow they lay a stranglehold on Chechnya. Today, Britain says, ‘Free Syria’. Tomorrow they turn a blind eye on Bahrain. It is all politics, no sincerity, just hypocrisy.