Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa, makes a statement at the Committte on Foreign Affairs (AFET) in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Committee on Foreign Affairs

Brussels

statement

meeting

EU - South Africa (T)

ZUMA, Jacob (ZA)

EU - South Africa: extracts from the statement by Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa

SOUNDBITE (English), Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa, The EU relations with Africa Carribean and Pacific group are critical particularly the trade relations.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa, The focus must be on the developmental mlutally beneficial final agreement which supports regional integration efforts in Southern Africa, in this regard the key outstanding issues which include the rules of origin must be resolved in order for a final agreement to be reached.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa, Some of us believe that democracy could only remain and indeed be more dominant if Parliamentarians as representatives of the peopme have a very strong say in the governance and in terms of oversight for the affairs of the people.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa, We understood that the problem with Zilbabwe will impact very directly to South Africa , so to us it was not just the question of saying what is Zimbabwe doing? it was a very close issue to us , it is therefore not correct to say South Africa has been reluctant to give leadership.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa, What we did not agree with the world at the time was that people expected South Africa to stand on top of the roofs, to attack Zimbabwe, criticize Zimbabwe, we decided not to do so so that we could be effective in facilitating.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa, If we do not remove the sanctions , we are in fact playing into the hands of those who would want the tensions to ramin in Zimbabwe for a long time.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa, SADEC is appealing to the global Community to lift sanctions , even if suspend them to give a chance to the efforts we are undertaking.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa, It is not as if we are just saying we are now tired of the freedom of the Media , not at all, we wantit , for us it is very important in society so that should be understood.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa, We have a very utile role to play and we areplaying that role, we are in every trouble spot in South Africa to try to stop violence to bring about peace , we are participating in keeping the peace.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa, What was the problem was the politicization of the HIV /AIDS thay was a problem we tended to make our programmes not important because certain people had particular views which tended to dominate the debate.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa, We have a vigourous programme which deals with HIV and AIDS and we are happy with it. We have had testing in public that is continuing emphasizibng that citizens must know their status.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa, Yes we are very keen to have the olympic games, we think we have the capcity to do so, we bid for them in the mid nineties this times we believe that the global community willsupport us on that.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa, There was a new spirit the Mandela spirit of the 90s came back wher in there was no doubt in South Africa.Everybody raised the South African flag and everybody felt very proud to be a South African so to us it hasbeen an enormous success , economiccally, politically and in terms of reconciliation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jacob ZUMA, President of South Africa, Violence on farmers. Yes that has been part of crime in SA. and crime has been reported to be in SA , we are fighting that crime , even on the farms there is a very specific plan to deal with it whichhas been discussed between the police and then farmers.