By Ndumiso Mlilo.
JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 28 (News of the South) The South African government on Thursday said there was no policy to deny the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama a visa to visit the country.
The South African International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said this while addressing the media in Pretoria on Thursday. She was briefing the media about the South African President Jacob Zuma’s intended visit to China next week. Responding to questions from journalists Nkoana-Mashabane said, “The answer is South Africa has its own independent foreign policy and there’s no individual in any corner of the world which has been banished to enter or visit South Africa. The Tibet region is considered to be an autonomous region of China. South Africa openly adopted a one-China policy and…”
Lama has been denied visa to visit South Africa three times with the government giving conflicting statements. The Minister also said, “I do not know of any country which does not engage China politically, economically and socially, so what we do everyday… is to continue doing South Africa’s bidding of what we believe to be defending all the rights that we fought for.”
South African government has been criticised by the civil society and human rights defenders for selling its sovereignty to China. The labour has also criticised China for human rights abuses where ever they operate from. Nkoana-Mashabane also added, “We have one of the very few constitutions in the world that I know has human rights embedded in the actual constitution itself so there’s no us looking the other way and us not defending fiercely that which we are known for which is based on the spirit of ubuntu (humanity).”
The Nobel peace summit which was supposed to take place in South Africa in October 2014 had to be cancelled after Pretoria barred Lama from visting the country. In September 2014, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Qin Gang was quoted in the media thanking South Africa for denying Lama a visa. AFP quoted Gang saying, “We also believe that South Africa will continue to uphold this correct position and continue to support China in this regard. The Chinese government is firmly opposed to the Dalai’s anti-China separatist activities in foreign countries.”
The Chinese government is against the the Tibet autonomy. President Zuma will visit China to meet his counterpart Xi Jinping and discuss the two countries’ bilateral relations.
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