South African President insults Brits but mollycoddles Sudan's government

It looks like my hopes in South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki were misplaced. His insulting speech in Sudan based on stuff from 120 years ago saying "British imperialists ravaged Africa" must mean he was trying to ingratiate himself towards the dictators in Khartoum. I have him earmarked now as someone who is not to be trusted.

Bearing in mind that South Africa chairs the African Union (AU) committee on post-conflict reconstruction of war-affected areas in Sudan, see what the Guardian says about South Africa's President in a report titled "Mbeki attacks 'racist' Churchill".

According to the Guardian, South Africa's main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, said President Mbeki's speech was a missed opportunity to press Khartoum to rein in the Janjaweed militias. "Mollycoddling the Sudanese government is hardly appropriate in the face of its failure to put a stop to the Janjaweed terrorism," he said.

And a party spokesman, said: "It amazes me that President Mbeki feels that he should insult the memory of the greatest Briton by associating him with British colonial policy of 120 years ago. All this in order to create some superficial similarity between Sudan and South Africa. There is no similarity at all. South Africa has a liberal democratic constitution. Sudan is a country which is hardly governed and where the Arab north dominates the African south and west."
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Footnote: As an exile in Britain in the 1960s South African President Thabo Mbeki was educated in England, UK at Sussex University and worked in the London office of the African National Congress. Once considered an Anglophile, his admiration for South Africa's former colonial power seems to have been cooled by spats over the Iraq war and strife in Zimbabwe.

My disappointment in President Mbeki is not so much the content of his speech, it is more to do with the next para here below (coupled with his sucking up to Khartoum) re PetroSA. OK that's one down - and one to go: I've still not pegged the President of the AU (who is also President of Nigeria) as corrupt or not. Some people in Nigeria say he is. Seems to me the only way Africa can move forward is for corruption to be eliminated and competent governors installed.

PetroSA to send technicians to explore oil possibilities in the Sudan

After attending last week's initialling in Kenya of a peace deal between Sudan's government and SPLM rebels, the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, paid a visit to Khartoum where he met his Sudanese counterpart, President Omar al-Beshir.

The two leaders agreed to encourage co-operation in the field of oil exploration.

Not long afterwards, news appeared online saying South Africa's national oil company PetroSA are to send technicians to explore oil possibilities in the Sudan. Various news reports say PetroSA signed an agreement with the Sudanese state oil company, Sudapet, for exclusive oil concession rights for oil Block 14 in the Sudan.

On January 4, 2005, PetroSA said in a statement that Sudan had awarded it a study agreement under which it would send technical personnel to conduct the necessary tests to ascertain the availability of oil in the block allocated. PetroSA is to send technicians to the Sudan to establish whether there are commercially exploitable quantities of oil in an exploration block that it has been allocated.

The department of foreign affairs said in a statement before Mbeki's visit that several South African companies had interests in the Sudan including the Global Railway Engineering Consortium of SA and PetroSA. It added:

Sudan will also send personnel to PetroSA for training to enhance their technical know-how. The Sudan will benefit commercially from the venture, while obtaining the critical skills they need to develop their oil industry further. The significance of this agreement is that it is an African country-to country partnership, where a win-win solution is pursued in line with the objectives of the New Partnership for Africa's Development.

Note, the Global Railway Engineering Consortium of SA concluded a $21 million contract with the Sudanese Railway Corporation for the rehabilitation of railways and rolling stock on December 9, 2004. And South Africa agreed that together with the University of South Africa (UNISA), it would train the SPLM leadership and other cadres to equip them with skills and experience that will enable them to participate needed to participate equitably in the transitional national government of the Sudan.

The state oil company PetroSA had already signed an agreement in May 2004 with the Sudanese state oil company, Sudapet, for certain exclusive oil concession rights.