Pretoria - The City of Tshwane is ready to host visiting US President Barack Obama this weekend, and there are no fears that planned protests will derail the programme.
Final logistics were being worked out, and Obama was scheduled to arrive in Pretoria on Friday, where he would be welcomed by President Jacob Zuma, Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Maite Nkoane-Mashabane said.
She said that his two-day stay in the city would not include a visit to ailing Nelson Mandela.
Obama had been made aware of Mandela’s condition and he respected the family’s privacy, she explained.
Mandela on Tuesday night spent his 19th night in the Pretoria Mediclinic Heart Hospital.
“He (Obama) is due to hold bilateral talks with President Zuma on Saturday,” the minister said.
The talks will range from trade, to co-operation in health and education. Nkoane-Mashabane added that Obama would visit the Mandela Foundation if time allowed.
She also said the visiting statesman’s planned itinerary would not be interrupted by any developments in Madiba’s condition, explaining that as respectful South Africans they did not plan around the ill-health of an adult, nor did they pre-empt developments.
She said: “… when people are ill-disposed, we try to give them space to recover. We have no instruction to do otherwise”.
If there were to be any changes in the plans for Obama’s visit, Mandela would be highly disappointed.
“He would be disappointed if he heard that because he was sick, life had stopped. He wants us not to stop until all people in the country have basic needs; they have clean water, education, food and electricity.”
The government was aware of Madiba’s condition.
“We continue to pray for the father of our nation,” Nkoane-Mashabane said.
According to the minister, Saturday’s discussion will be held under the umbrella of a 2010 strategic partnership signed by both countries. “In line with that partnership, our relations are solid, strong and positive,” she said. The Obama administration had expressed interest in partnering with South Africa domestically and regionally.
Obama’s Gauteng stay will also see him presiding over a Young African Leaders initiative meeting at the University of Johannesburg on Saturday.
He will leave Gauteng for Cape Town, where he will visit Robben Island, as well as a health facility funded by the US at the Desmond Tutu Centre.
He would visit other sites in Cape Town on Sunday, his main activity being the delivery of an address at the University of Cape Town.
It would be given on the 59th anniversary of a speech made by Senator Robert Kennedy at the same venue, said the minister.
Planned protests by trade unions in Pretoria and Cape Town against the visit posed no threat to the president’s visit, she added.
“In a democratic setting there are those who also feel they must be heard,” she said of the planned Cosatu protests.
“The protesters say they are not happy with the US government’s attitude towards Palestine. They decry what they term the blanket support of the Israeli government’s aggression against the people of Palestine, and the US constantly vetoing resolutions to rein in the “apartheid state of Israel”.
Cosatu will be joined by, among other unions, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union and the South African Communist Party.
The minister said the US continued to support the country’s domestic priorities and had made an effort to align its assistance programmes and projects with these priority areas.
“South Africa and the United States face a number of common challenges, such as the quest to improve public education and health; create jobs, develop skills and finally safety and security issues,” she explained.
Pretoria News