South Africa's Shoddy Foreign Policy: Tibet

In just one more example of how its current foreign policies are totally divorced from its 'struggle' past, the ANC government has just denied the Dalai Lama a visa to visit South Africa to attend a conference of Nobel Peace Laurettes. Through odd coincidence, China opened an office in Johannesburg of its China Africa Development Fund last week (16 March) and announced investments of 2 billion US$ in Africa.

Here is an article in the Mail and Guardian and another in IOL. Some hilarious explanations of the government decision by its spokesmen are that it would "divert attention" from South Africa's World Cup celebrations [Thabo Masebe] or this gem of a sentance by Ronnie Mamoepa:

"As far as the South African government is concerned, no invitation was extended to the Dalai Lama to visit South Africa so therefore the question of the visas doesn't exist."

Thanks for clearing that one up, Ronnie. Our government is so logical.