Year gone by represents a milestone in India-SA relations
High points can help draw up a roadmap to build on the gains made for both countries
AS 2019 is ushered in, it’s only apt to contemplate upon the year gone by. The high points that defined the year are the milestones that usually stay with us and help in drawing the roadmap for the future.
Last year was a remarkable year in the India-South Africa relationship. The year when India celebrated 70th anniversary of its independence also marked 25 years since the resumption of diplomatic relations with South Africa.
India restored relations with South Africa after a gap of more than four decades with the opening of a cultural centre in Joburg in May 1993.
Diplomatic and consular relations with South Africa were restored six months later in November 1993 when the then South African foreign minister, Pik Botha, visited India.
Last year also marked the 125th anniversary of the Pietermaritzburg railway station incident on June 7, 1893, when Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a young London-trained Indian lawyer who had arrived in the port city of Durban just a few weeks earlier and was on his way to Pretoria, was evicted out of a first-class coach and thrown onto the platform.
That first-hand encounter with a repressive regime on a cold June night sowed the seeds of Satyagraha, which literally means “quest for truth”, a unique form of passive resistance against the discriminatory and exploitative regimes, not just in India and South Africa but in many countries across the world. Truly a night that changed the world.
Last year started on a joyous and uplifting note with the visit of the Indian Navy Sailing Vessel Tarini to the shores of Cape Town.
Tarini, the Indian Navy’s second ocean-going sail boat, embarked on the first Indian all-women circumnavigation of the globe on September 10, 2017 from Goa in India. During the circumnavigation, the boat visited Fremantle, Australia; Lyttelton, New Zealand; and Port Stanley, Falklands, and arrived in Cape Town for the final port call on March 2.
By successfully completing the arduous task of circumnavigation of the globe in their sailing vessel in 254 days in all, with 199 days at sea, the six gutsy young women officers of the Indian Navy proved to the world that gender is just a matter of semantics.
The beacon of inspiration they shone from their sailing vessel continues to illuminate the path of innumerable other stories of courage and determination.
The first India-South Africa Business Summit, held in Joburg on April 29 and 30 last year, added fresh impetus to the business ties between the two countries. It brought together key government leaders, led by Suresh Prabhu, India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry and of Civil Aviation, and Rob Davies, South Africa’s Minister of Trade and Industry, besides captains of industry and entrepreneurs from both countries.
The summit aspired to deepen mutual investment ties and take the current bilateral trade volume of $10 billion (R145bn) to double the figure in the next few years.
The momentum created by the India-South Africa Business Summit was reinforced through the Invest in India Business Forum on November 12-13 in Joburg.
The forum sought to highlight the advantages and opportunities for South African companies looking to expand into India and gain from India’s vibrant market and high growth trajectory.
Both countries also reaffirmed their ties through a commitment to jointly develop skill institutes in South Africa.
The first of a series of institutes was jointly inaugurated on October 8 by Minister of Higher Education and Training Naledi Pandor and Indian high commissioner Ruchira Kamboj at the TVET College, Tshwane South.
Aptly named the Gandhi-Mandela Centre of Specialisation for Artisan Skills in the year of Gandhi 150 and Mandela 100, this will be a multi-skills centre of specialisation, where training will be imparted in four identified areas: electrician, boilermaker, mechanical fitter and millwright.
The centre will promote quality vocational training in these identified sectors to meet the requirements of young people in South Africa, both unskilled and semi-skilled.
The government of India will bear the cost of project planning and co-ordination; supply, installation and commissioning of the machines and equipment; the sending of technical/ training experts in the identified fields; training of South African personnel in India; and on-the-job training of facilitators by Indian experts in South Africa.
The centre was set up following the memorandum of understanding that had been signed between the two governments in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Cyril Ramaphosa in Joburg on July 26 last year during Modi’s visit to attend the 10th BRICS Summit hosted by South Africa, and is a practical manifestation of their vision to promote quality vocational education and training to meet the training requirements of young people of South Africa.
This is in addition to the ongoing Indian Technical and Economic Co-operation programme, which has contributed to improving the skills and enhancing the knowledge of nearly 1 000 South African nationals since 1993.
The 10th BRICS Summit saw leaders of the member countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and several other countries in Africa, and chairs of several multilateral bodies, reinforce the need for co-operation in meeting common challenges in our countries.
Modi’s visit to South Africa to attend the summit, the final stop of his three-nation tour of Africa that included Rwanda and Uganda, and his meeting with Ramaphosa added impetus to the ties and laid the groundwork of future collaboration across sectors.
This was their second meeting. The first took place in London in April last year, when the two leaders attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The leaders again met in Buenos Aires last month during the G-20 Summit.
Enhancing engagements under the IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) framework, two Indian Naval ships, Kolkata and Tarkash, visited Simon’s Town on October 1-3 for joint exercises with the Brazilian and South African navies and deepen the bonds of co-operation and friendship in the naval field.
The new year offers us an opportunity to build upon the gains and momentum of the spectacular year that was.