Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo today leaves for Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso to attend the 68th Session of the Organization of Africa Unity (OAU) Council of Ministers meeting from 1 - 7 June 1998. Minister Nzo will be accompanied by the South African Permanent Representative to the OAU, Mr Welile Nhlapo, and a delegation of senior officials. Minister Nzo will participate in deliberations with his OAU counterparts and specifically concentrate on issues like the structural reform of the organization as well as the enhancement of the effectiveness of the Central Organ of the OAU. Minister Nzo emphasised that these two issues "are central to our collective efforts to render our continental organization more responsive and better able to respond to the needs of Africa". The Council of Ministers will also, inter alia, deal with the developing situations in the Comoros, Burundi, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Angola and Rwanda. Minister Nzo will also lend South Africa's support to the current initiatives to promote collective action against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. Before leaving for the meeting, the Minister said that "we feel that given the successful role which the OAU played in the campaign against anti-personnel mines, it can now play a similar role in coordinating actions against the illegal spread of these weapons". Following the Council of Ministers meeting, President Mandela will lead the South African delegation to the Summit of Heads of State and Government on 8 - 9 June 1998.
ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS PRETORIA 1 JUNE 1998