Mbeki's Hopes for US-So.Africa Relations Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source - "Henry C.K. Liu" WASHINGTON, June 6 (AFP) - South Africa's next president Thabo Mbeki said he hoped for US support to spur "an African renaissance," and vowed to pursue policies in line with Washington's advocacy of fiscal discipline and free trade. "We were very pleased with the visit of President (Bill) Clinton to Africa last year. And we thought it was a very important signal of the commitment of the United States to the development of this continent," Mbeki said in an interview with Newsweek due to hit newsstands Monday. "We would like this next century to be the African Century, (with an) African renaissance. We as Africans should take on the challenge. But I think we will succeed better if a powerful country like the United States joins us in this effort," said Mbeki. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) received an overwhelming majority in South Africa's general elections last week, providing a strong mandate for Mbeki as President Nelson Mandela's successor. Mbeki expressed support for maintaining fiscal discipline, despite rising pressures for social spending, and said he believed South Africa's best interests would be served by keeping to principles of free trade and an open economy. "We've had to make enormous changes with regard to economic policy. This economy was an isolated economy ... (with) high tariff barriers. We had to open it up, which was painful." He also addressed the fears voiced by some white South Africans that, compared with Mandela, Mbeki will take a less conciliatory stance toward the country's white minority. "We need to ... develop a South Africa in which all South Africans -- black and white -- develop a common patriotism and overcome the distrust and racial antagonisms of the past," he said. Regarding reports of rising crime in South Africa, Mbeki said: "When people talk about crime, it's because crime has spread into white areas. The black areas have been victim to high levels of crime for many decades." He pointed out that in the past, the South African police were focused less on fighting crime than on fighting anti-apartheid activists, and he noted that in 1994, some 85 percent of police stations were located in predominantly white areas where less than 10 percent of the population lived. The government has "tried to strengthen our law-enforcement agencies to ensure they are able to fight crime," said Mbeki, citing a need for "reallocation of resources." * Comment: The US never had, and still does not have an African Policy. It had a Cold War policy toward South Africa. Mbeki knows that neo-liberal globalizaton is the price he has to pay to get inidspensable US support. The US is still the king maker in most of Africa. SA established diplomatic realtions with China less than two years ago. Mandela went to China to thank the People's Republic for its unswering support against Apartheid through the decades, musch to US displeasure who wanted Mandela to sing the same American tune on human rights.....Henry C.K. Liu ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytaf-06.06.99-22:14:01-8482