Part II Interview with Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation in South Africa Candith Dlamini

“How did your meeting with the President go?”

“Our meeting with the president went very well.He focused on the same issues that were discussed with the vice minister Dr. Jaafari and minister of trade Khalil -so it was an emphasis put by the President on these very same issues.”

“Historically the ANC was the driving force of South Africa it had a lot of Umph. It had very good relations with Syria and with the Baath Arab Socialist Party .Is the ANC still as powerful -does it have the same umph as it used to have?”

“We definitely still have the same umph- we are still as powerful. If you can see in South Africa the small parties that are formed and also the democracy that is happening in South Africa this is because the government as the ruling party is implementing the ANC policies .So the ANC policy is acceptable in say 99.9%.The opposition in South Africa is not a hard opposition it’s just to say we are in Parliament, vote for us.

“What about the EFF – the economic freedom fighters they are very noisy?”

“They are very noisy just to say we are here – they can’t change anything.

The ruling party is the one that does the change.”

Of course we are going for party election in December. The ANC will have a landmark conference after Covid. We (the ANC)had a policy conference last month. This policy conference was a preliminary step to the conference in December.”

“My last question is do you see a culture exchange – a student exchange between Syria and South Africa?”

“Definitely we will. We have discussed that with the vice minister and the minister of trade. You know you have very good diplomatic training here and Syria. We have got a diplomatic training in South Africa. So there can be an exchange. You have good universities here, we have good universities in South Africa. We also spoke about cultural exchange, people to people, so we are looking at all avenues that will revive our people on both sides so we know each other better.”

“Deputy Minister thank you very much.”

Editor In Chief

Reem Haddad