Haiti: Pahad slams DA attitude

2003-12-18 12:05

Cape Town - Government has slammed opposition to South Africa's involvement in the bicentennial celebration of Haiti's democracy, accusing detractors of feeding the stereotype of Africans and black people as failures.

In a scathing statement released on Thursday, deputy foreign affairs minister Aziz Pahad said the small minority who opposed President Thabo Mbeki's visit to Haiti on January 1 next year, had never been able to accept democratic rule by the African majority.

"For them the current challenges facing the people of Haiti feeds into their stereotype tendency to portray Africans and black people in the continent and elsewhere in the diaspora as hopeless and failures," Pahad said.

The Democratic Alliance has voiced opposition to the planned trip saying the money could be better spent in South Africa.

"If President Thabo Mbeki wants to go to Haiti for a private holiday, that is one thing. It is something altogether different if he wants to go there with all the trappings of state, at the expense of the taxpayer and the defence budget," DA acting leader Douglas Gibson said earlier in the week.

South Africa has offered Haiti R10m "as material support" for its celebrations.

It was also reported that the SA Navy replenishment vessel SAS Drakensberg had left Simonstown for the island so it could serve as a safe haven for Mbeki and his party if the situation there got out of hand.

Gibson said Haiti was descending into chaos and civil disorder. "It does not seem to us that there is much to celebrate in Haiti, but if the Haitians wish to celebrate the fact that they are the poorest and most backward country in the Americas, that is their affair."

Pahad hit back on Thursday accusing the DA of using Haiti's current economic challenges as a way of continuing the stereotype of Africans being hopeless.

"We refuse to be party to efforts that seek to obliterate the history and achievements of African people in the continent and elsewhere in the diaspora."

He said South Africa would assist the government of Haiti address the political and economic challenges it currently faces.

"The government will indeed rise to this challenge and has accordingly agreed to assist in this regard."

- SAPA