An island hop and some protests await Obamas
BARACK Obama will visit two historic sites in Cape Town today — Robben Island and the University of Cape Town.
Gardeners were out in force on the island this week and practice landings with helicopters were carried out ahead of the visit by the US president and his family this morning.
Later in the day, Obama will deliver what has been described as a “mainframing speech” at the university. It was on its campus in 1966 that US senator Bobby Kennedy, brother of president John Kennedy, delivered a key anti-apartheid speech.
Kennedy was assassinated the following year during his campaign for the presidency.
Speculation about who would guide the Obamas around Robben Island centred on Ahmed Kathrada, 83, an ANC stalwart and one of Nelson Mandela’s fellow prisoners, who has confirmed he will accompany the Obamas to the island.
Robben Island Museum spokesman Shoni Khangala said Kathrada or former prisoner Thulani
Obama will lay out a vision for US-African relations
Mabaso might lead the tour.
Protesters are planning to intercept a US entourage at the Waterfront today.
The Obamas will fly to the island, but other members of the party are due to make the crossing by boat.
The Obamas will visit the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation Youth Centre at Masiphumelele in Noordhoek today, where they are expected to meet Tutu.
Manager Dante Robbertze was surprised when the Sunday Times arrived at the centre this week.
“Washington has asked us not to reveal anything to do with the event,” he said.
The foundation receives funding from Obama’s Pepfar (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) fund. It offers HIV testing and outreach services that are managed by the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the University of Cape Town.
Obama’s visit tonight has resulted in “significant inconvenience” to the university, which went into a security lockdown yesterday evening.
Obama is scheduled to deliver his speech — about US policy on Africa — on the upper campus.
US deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said the speech would focus on “trade and in- vestment, development, democracy, partnerships on behalf of peace and security”.
No protests are expected inside the venue, Jameson Hall, because each guest had to be invited by the US consulate before being allocated a seat.
Asked about the guest list, US embassy spokesman Jack Hillmeyer said: “Sorry, I do not believe it will be made public.”
There will be protests outside by the Cape Town Nobama Coalition, which yesterday called on its supporters to place old shoes along the barricades of the campus.
Organiser Shaheed Mahomed said the shoes would symbolise “the millions who are denied academic freedom, the freedom of expression, the right to life, as a result of the violence of US imperialism”.
Staff, students and pedestrians were warned earlier this week in an e-mailed memo to avoid the upper campus “at all costs” between 6pm yesterday and midnight tonight.
Although the university is on a semester break, some staff and students are still on campus.
Vehicles left near the venue will be towed away, the campus library has been closed and the student shuttle service has been cancelled.
“We have attempted to minimise the disruption to UCT business, but unfortunately there will still be some significant inconvenience caused,” said the memo by Gerda Kruger.
“It is nevertheless a privilege for UCT to host President Obama, the first US president ever to speak on our campus. His choice of UCT brings kudos to our university.”
Rhodes said in a briefing that the university was a “historic site — one of the great universities on the continent; a place that has been host to very significant speeches, including the speeches Robert F Kennedy gave — the Day of Affirmation address where he spoke about ‘ripples of hope’. And so the president will be able to lay out a vision for US-African relations going forward”.
The speech will be streamed live at whitehouse.gov.
Men in black this week manned the Table Bay Hotel parking lot, foyer and restaurants. Parked outside was a row of huge black Chevy Suburbans and chunky Cadillacs with Washington DC registration plates.
An armour-plated, bomb-proof Cadillac was built for Obama by General Motors. With a price tag of R10-million, it has 20cm-thick steel on its doors, is 5.5m long and weighs eight tons.
The luxury hotel at the Waterfront was a hive of activity in preparation for tonight’s sleepover by the Obamas.
According to security experts, the hotel is favoured by foreign dignitaries because its location on the Waterfront makes it easy to secure.
The hotel was opened by Nelson Mandela in May 1997.