SA minister to participate in SADC meeting

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Pretoria - International Relations Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, will tomorrow travel to Mozambique to attend a Southern African Development Community's (SADC) political and diplomatic meeting.

According to the department, the meeting will prepare for the upcoming African Union (AU) summit later this month.

The ministers will among others discuss their nomination of Malawi for chairmanship of the AU summit.

The department said the meeting is a follow-up to September's gathering in Kinshasa where Malawi's candidacy was first proposed.

The foreign ministers will also be briefed on Zimbabwe by South African representatives and on the political situation in Madagascar.

The 14th Ordinary Session of the AU is scheduled for 25 January to 2 February 2010 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The theme of the summit is "Information and Communication Technologies in Africa."

However, concerns about continents hotpots like Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Niger, Guinea and Sudan could overshadow the summit.

Football could also be a hot topic with South Africa hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The leaders will be eager to hear that country's report on the preparations.