Africans against ties with authoritarian Minsk :: Charter'97 :: News

Representatives of the largest oppositional party in the parliament of the South African Republic, the Democratic Alliance (DA), are concerned over deepening of cooperation between their country and Belarus. As Radio Svaboda has informed today, the leader of the DA Tony Leon criticized the government of the Republic of South Africa. He called unacceptable rapprochement of Pretoria and Minsk “when the international community expresses sharp criticism of the Belarusian regime for the situation with human rights”, when the EU and the US “impose sanctions against the highest Belarusian officials”.

According to Sapa agency, members of the Democratic Alliance find the recent visit of South African Foreign Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma to Belarus and her talks with the Belarusian government on further political and economic cooperation ill-timed.

The leader of the party Tony Leon has underlined that “the statements of the South African government that relations in Belarus are established for the sake of struggle with apartheid, is a usual pretext of this friendly visit… This explanation is naive, ridiculous, inaccurate and has no historical background. The time has come to orientate to more democratic ideals”.

The head of the foreign policy ministry of the Republic of South Africa Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma visited Belarus this July. During the meeting with Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka and a representative of the lower chamber of the Belarusian parliament Uladzimir Kanaplyou Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma noted the high level of the political cooperation of the countries in the framework of the UN and the Non-Aligned Movement. Dr Dlamini Zuma has also expressed a wish of cooperation in the sphere of industry, agriculture, high technologies. The Republic of South Africa has a vast experience in construction of modular reactors, and is ready to share this experience with Belarus.