Pretoria - International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and her European counterpart Catherine Ashton have expressed their concern about the admittance to hospital of former South African President, Nelson Mandela.
The two added their voice to well-wishing messages as the world icon spent his fourth day in intensive care at a Pretoria hospital after being admitted in the early hours of Saturday after suffering from a recurring lung infection.
According to the Presidency the health condition of the 94-year-old statesman has not changed since he was admitted.
In a joint statement after their Ministerial Political Dialogue both Nkoana-Mashabane and Ashton wished the former president a “full and speedy recovery.”
The two ministers used their meeting to review the continued deepening of the EU-South Africa Strategic Partnership and the value of on-going development cooperation.
“Despite South Africa’s middle income status, the support it provided to social inclusion, skills, education, innovation and capacity development continued to make a significant contribution to alleviating the conditions of inequality, unemployment and poverty that persisted,” the two said in a statement issued after their meeting in Brussels.
They encouraged all those engaged in other areas of cooperation, including migration, energy, employment and trade to press forward with their existing work programmes to deliver progress, including in advance of the forthcoming EU-South Africa Summit to be held Gauteng in July.
The ministers also recognised the two parties’ common interest in building peace, security and good governance in areas where it was lacking.
In this regard, they agreed to continue working closely together to enable peaceful, transparent and credible elections in Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Mali, and to help build security and inclusive political processes in the DRC, CAR, Guinea Bissau and Somalia.
They also expressed their concern about the continuing conflict in Syria and the deteriorating humanitarian and human rights situation there.
“They agreed on the urgent need for a political solution to the conflict and confirmed that they will spare no effort in helping to create appropriate conditions for a successful convening of the peace conference on Syria.” –SAnews.gov.za
