Venezuela seeks strategic alliance with SA
VENEZUELA’S Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza is on a five-day visit to South Africa on his second African tour this year to consolidate relations with African countries.
Arreaza just completed a visit to Mozambique where he met President Filipe Nyusi, who pledged Mozambique’s full political support to Venezuela, and undertook to strengthen relations in all sectors. Arreaza will hold bilateral discussions with his counterpart Minister Lindiwe Sisulu in Pretoria, and other ministers today.
Venezuela’s objective is to create a pole of power between Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa to translate into a free trade zone that will counter western trade and political hegemony. “We are very supportive of BRICS and would like to forge closer relations, as we are already close allies with Russia, India, China, and South Africa,” Arreaza said.
South African civil society has been energised by Arreaza’s visit, attending a solidarity meeting with Venezuela in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria yesterday, marking Venezuela’s Independence Day.
Venezuela’s Vice-Minister for Africa Yuri Pimentel, who is also in the country, said: “There is a great deal of complementarity between the two economies. South Africa needs oil, and some aspects of South Africa’s industry are more developed than that in Venezuela such as gold and diamond mining which South Africa is assisting us with.”
“Despite the trouble in our economy, we haven’t sacrificed social investment. We are still providing hundreds of houses to the poor. We continue to distribute regular food packages to homes, and provide free health care and education.
“Our democratic socialist project is not the 20th century way of Cuba or the Chinese model, it is our own project – a very strong state that seeks to have good relations with the private sector.”