Mbeki heads for Maputo in Nepad countdown

The Star (SA) via Independent Online (SA) ^ | May 1, 2002 | John Battersby

[Clive]

President Thabo Mbeki begins a two-day state visit to Mozambique on Thursday which could define the forging of a more united regional bloc to end conflicts and develop joint economic projects to benefit the SADC region.

South Africa recently became the largest foreign investor in Mozambique, a position formally occupied by Portugal, and Mozambique recently took over from Zimbabwe as South Africa's major African trading partner.

South African investment in Mozambique has topped R9-billion and could double in the next few years, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad.

'We will have to deal with all the conflicts'

The visit is being seen as a mission to lay the groundwork for extracting maximum benefit from the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) - a partnership between Africa and the industrialised countries to be consummated at the G8 summit in Canada next month - and set the tone for the new African Union to be launched in Durban this month.

"As South Africa becomes the first chairman of the African Union it will be incumbent on us to set the tone for the launching of Nepad," Pahad said at a media briefing on the eve of the summit.

Pahad said Mbeki's talks with Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano would focus on strategic issues such as the settling of long-standing conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, where the prospects of peace were looking promising.

"We will have to deal with all the conflicts and we will have to work much closer with SADC partners to ensure that we can carry out the region's responsibilities to the new African Union," he said.

Mbeki's talks with Chissano, with whom he already has a close personal relationship, will also focus on the importance of joint SADC projects to kickstart the Nepad partnership.

"Nepad is going to function in relation to the various trade blocs, and each region will need to take ownership of the partnership," Pahad said.

South Africa already has close relations with Mozambique and is well placed to forge a closer economic relationship with Zimbabwe, by leading its economic reconstruction, once President Robert Mugabe steps down.

[Clive]

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[End Times Sentinel]

"We will have to deal with all the conflicts and we will have to work much closer with SADC partners to ensure that we can carry out the region's responsibilities to the new African Union," .

I don’t have a lot of confidence that NePAD [also known as the Union of African Dictators] will have ANY effect on the numerous regional conflicts on the continent. Since nearly without exception African countries are ruled by corrupt dictators, I don’t see a lot of incentive for NePAD to do anything other than rattle the tin cup for more Western Aid.

Although I’m not an economist, it seems to me that when your top industry is “Aid Recipient”, that would be a red flag that something isn’t going right.

Owl_Eagle

”Guns Before Butter.”

[nopardons]

ROTFLMAOAPIMP

What is Mbeki smoking ? This has to be one of THE funniest AFRICA WATCH threads ever posted. Mugabe isn't going to " step down ", Mbeki has about as much chance of stopping conflict anywhere in Africa, as I do , in capturing OBL in my attic, and all of the SubSaharan countries are in desperate straits of one kind or another.

NEPAD ( " kneepad " begging machine ! ) has always been Mbeki's pipe dream . He thinks that he can pull a Jesse Jackson shakedown on the Western countries ; however, he hasn't a bloody thing to use as blackmail. His promises of " peace & stability " , are just smoke and mirror lies and the West knows it !