Article: Powell Arrives in South Africa, Praises It as "New Nation"

24 May 2001

Article: Powell Arrives in South Africa, Praises It as "New Nation"

Reaffirms President Bush's strong commitment to Africa

By Charles W. Corey
Washington File Staff Correspondent

Pretoria, South Africa -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived May 24 in South Africa, the second stop on his historic four-nation Africa tour, praising the progress South Africa has made over the years and calling it a "new nation" as he again reaffirmed President Bush's strong commitment to Africa.

Speaking at a joint press conference with South African President Thabo Mbeki at the renowned Union Buildings, which contain the president's office and major offices of government, Powell said the South Africa of today is a nation with an economy geared for the 21st century.

Powell recalled that he was last at the Union Buildings seven years ago at the inauguration of President Nelson Mandela.

Powell said he was pleased to see the transfer of authority and power to his longtime friend President Mbeki when Mbeki was constitutionally elected to succeed President Mandela. Not only is President Mbeki a dynamic leader for South Africa, Powell said, but he is also a regional leader playing an important role in an important region. "Increasingly, we see that regional problems have to be dealt with" by regional leaders acting in a regional fashion, Powell told reporters.

The secretary of state also applauded President Mbeki's African Renaissance Program, which, he said, will allow Africans to come together to analyze their problems and determine their own solutions to those problems as they also seek help in solving the problems from the international community.

Providing a review of his one-hour meeting with the South African leader, Powell said that he and the South African president discussed a range of regional issues, which included Angola, Zimbabwe, Congo, and the Middle East. Both he and Mbeki, he said, hope "something can be made" of the Mitchell Report on the Middle East "that will bring an end to the violence and move immediately into confidence-building measures and then as quickly as possible to negotiations to ultimately bring peace to this troubled area."

In his remarks, President Mbeki welcomed Secretary Powell. The visit, Mbeki said, "reaffirms and confirms the very strong and warm relations that exist between the United States and South Africa."

Like Powell, Mbeki noted that the two discussed regional issues and the Middle East. Both the U.S. and the South African governments are "very much of the same mind" when it comes to these important matters, Mbeki said, and thus "will continue to cooperate and deal with these questions." Mbeki said Powell will follow up on many of those issues in a May 25 meeting with South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Following opening remarks, both Powell and Mbeki answered questions from reporters.

Asked if the U.S. government has less enthusiasm for Africa since the Bush administration took office, Powell emphatically answered: "No way. Not from the White House. ... The president has encouraged this trip. The president is very, very interested in what my report will be when I get back."

As further proof of President Bush's strong commitment to Africa, Powell cited Bush's recent announcement at the White House in which he invited 35 African heads of state to attend a conference that will continue implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Also, a few weeks ago, Powell recalled, President Bush was in the White House Rose Garden with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to announce a new Global Trust Fund for HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.

Asked about the HIV/AIDS situation in South Africa, Powell said President Mbeki is "fully seized" with the problem and is doing everything possible to reduce the HIV/AIDS rate in his country. Mbeki, Powell said, "understands the nature of this problem and how it is affecting his country and the entire region."

While in South Africa, Powell said, he looked forward to talking with South African officials on how the United States can be of greater assistance in attacking the HIV/AIDS problem.

President Mbeki, asked if he was satisfied that the Bush administration shared the same level of intensity for Africa as the Clinton administration, replied emphatically, "Yes, I am."

Mbeki reminded reporters that he visited Bush in Austin, Texas, when Bush was governor of that state. "We spent quite a bit of time discussing the challenges facing the African continent and agreed, indeed, that if he became president, we would need to be in contact about those particular issues."

Mbeki said when he called Bush to congratulate him upon winning the presidency, Bush raised those questions and issues again. "Everyone is of one mind" on these issues, Mbeki said, as he noted that he will be visiting Washington next month.

"I know it as a matter of fact that President Bush is indeed very concerned that the U.S. must lend its strength to helping us to find solutions to these problems," Mbeki added.

Powell motorcaded directly from Waterkloof Air Force Base outside Pretoria to the Union Buildings to meet with President Mbeki.

Upon arrival from Mali, the first country stop on the tour, Powell was welcomed in a brief red carpet ceremony by Ambassador B.I.L. Modise, chief of protocol at the South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Air Force Base Commander Rodney Penhall; and the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Delano Lewis and Mrs. Lewis.

Powell arrived from Mali, where he held talks with that nation's president and visited a malaria clinic operated in conjunction with the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Before leaving South Africa for Kenya May 26, Powell will go to an HIV/AIDS clinic and visit the black community of Soweto -- which played an important role in ending apartheid -- and he will deliver a major address at the University of Witwatersrand in Pretoria.

Powell will also visit Kenya and Uganda before flying on to Europe for meetings and then returning to Washington.