Minister calls for end to coups on continent

THE current trend of gaining political power in Africa by unconstitutional means has to be halted and SA will work towards ensuring that peace is maintained, International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said during her department’s budget vote in Parliament yesterday.

She referred to events in Madagascar, where a planned election was postponed on Wednesday. The country is being led an interim government headed by Andry Rajoelina, who seized power by military backing in 2009.

Ms Nkoana-Mashabane also referred to the crisis in the Central African Republic, where several South African soldiers lost their lives recently. But the minister said SA was ready to support peace efforts in Africa and welcomed the African Union’s decision to create a standby force to respond to crises.

The minister said that the government welcomed the proposal for an intervention brigade as a realistic option to bring security normalcy to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

SA has decided to deploy about 800 troops in a peace enforcement mission in the Congo as part of a United Nations-sanctioned force.

The minister said that the government was also in full support of peace initiatives in the Congo, the Central African Republic, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia, and between South Sudan and Sudan.

SA had a continuing strategic political dialogue with the US as that country remained a major trade, investment, tourism and technology partner. US President Barrack Obama will visit SA next month.

Ms Nkoana-Mashabane said Europe remained SA’s main trading partner, source of investment and valuable supplier of cutting-edge technology and capacity building.

Democratic Alliance MP Bill Eloff called on Ms Nkoana-Mashabane to implement the recommendations of the National Development Plan to create a high-level task team to investigate SA’s foreign relations.

Mr Eloff said that SA — as a middle-income country — had overstretched itself diplomatically.