Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
Following speculation in the press, the Department of Foreign Affairs would like to address unfounded suggestions that South Africa was deliberately excluded from the Victoria Falls Summit arranged by President Robert Mugabe to mediate in the Great Lakes crisis.
The need for the Summit was identified by President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda at the recent regional conference in Swakopmund, Namibia, during which he briefed Deputy President Thabo Mbeki fully on the agenda of the proposed Summit. Futhermore, the suggestion that President Laurent Kabila was opposed to South Africa's participation at the Summit is also incorrect as he had in fact asked South Africa to become involved in mediation efforts, hence the decision to send Ministers Alfred Nzo and Joe Modise to Lubumbashi to meet with him on 7 August 1998. The South African delegation's visit to the DRC was also discussed with the governments of Zimbabwe, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. A report on the meeting was communicated to the Victoria Falls Summit in an effort to complement its own deliberations.
South Africa shall continue to do all it can to consolidate the transition process in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in so doing prevent a deterioration in the situation in that country. To this end, it will continue to support regional efforts, including the work of the four nation committee set up by the Victoria Falls Summit.
The suggestion, therefore, that South Africa's non-participation in the Victoria Falls Summit is at odds with regional mediation efforts and is also somehow linked to the role of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, is incorrect.
It will be recalled that the decision to suspend the work of the Organ was taken by the SADC Summit in Blantyre in September 1997, because of uncertainty surrounding the mandate of such an Organ. Subsequent to that decision, a meeting of SADC Heads of State in Maputo in March 1998 requested the Presidents of Malawi, Namibia and Mozambique to canvass all the members of SADC on the role of the Organ and to then make proposals which are expected to be put to the forthcoming Summit in Mauritius on 13-14 September 1998.
ISSUED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS PRETORIA 12 AUGUST 1998