Warm welcome
Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May (left) is greeted by schoolchildren waving British and South African flags, during a visit to the ID Mkhize Secondary School in Gugulethu township, about 15 kilometers from the center of Cape Town, on Tuesday as part of a threenation visit to Africa where she is expected to discuss post-Brexit trade ties with the continent’s most developed economy
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday pledged to prioritize investment in Africa as she started a three-nation visit to the continent to drum up new trade deals ahead of leaving the EU.
Her tour of South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya – May’s first to Africa since becoming premier in 2016 – is seen as an effort to reinforce Britain’s global ambitions after Brexit.
“By 2022, I want the UK to be the G7’s No.1 investor in Africa, with Britain’s private sector companies taking the lead,” May told business leaders in Cape Town, South Africa.
The G7 group does not include China, which has become a big investor on the African continent.
“As prime minister of a trading nation whose success depends on global markets, I want to see strong African economies that British companies can do business with,” she said.
“I want to create a new partnership between the UK and our friends in Africa built around shared prosperity and shared security.”
May is facing pressure at home from so-called Remainers sceptical of her ability to forge trade deals once Britain severs ties with the EU, as well as from Brexiteers fearful she will not deliver a complete break.
“As we prepare to leave the European Union, now is the time for the UK to deepen and strengthen its global partnerships,” she said in a statement as she arrived in South Africa.
Former foreign minister Boris Johnson, whose July departure from the cabinet brought May’s government to the brink, said in his resignation speech that May’s current Brexit policy would hamper London’s ability to strike independent trade deals.