SA peace meet postponed over Dalai Lama visa spat

This is shocking, a disgrace. How can we call ourselves a "Rainbow Nation" when we don’t allow a world leader of the stature of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to be allowed access to our country.

The ANC government needs to grow a set of balls, and stop being pushed around by "Big Brother". Since when do we bow down to the Chinese regarding our own foreign policies.

As an alternative, why not hold the conference in one of our neighbouring states, eg. Botswana, Lesotho etc. If you want to be really “funny” you can always hold it aboard cruise liner , as long as it was in international waters , which i think is +- 30 km.

It was good of the government not to grant visa to this man. I personally have nothing against him but one must remember that his visit would not have benefited the poor and the unemployed. With good relations with China, our country can benefit a great deal in terms of bringing the much needed investment to this country, thereby creating job oppurtunities. The sad thing about this is that it has denied us an oppurtunity to see our bishop Tutu in our townships/mist again. I hear that this tour would have started or made turn in Soweto.

I applaud the organisers for postponing the event, people have died so that we can be free and now a trading partner wants to dictate to us what to do? this is disrespecting our values and democracy, and we rather loose china than our values. Their products are not of good quality anyway, ask any taxi owner who has Inyathi, Nigeria invested so much in a space satelite that was to last at least 15 years but because of batteries from china the satelite was lost in just three years, so ya i dont think we will loose anything if we loose them. Do you think they would have dared asked Mandela to do something of this sort during his administration? We cannot have the "Pretoria-Beijing" relationship to be like the "Washington-London", we are still too early in the relationship.

If reports that the SA government has decided not to issue a visa to the Dalai Lama until after WC 2010 are correct, it would be interesting to note their reaction were he to come as a spectator or be ivited as a FIFA special dignatory. This would then be a contravention of Clause 5 of the 2010 FIFA World Cup SA Special Measures Bill of 2006. A threat to the World Cup still being held in SA ?

Congratulations South Africa!

Another world first!

We're the first nation (outside of China) to ever refuse a visa to the Dalai Lama.

A truly appalling and diabolical decision to deny the Dalai Lama entry to S.Africa. This will come back to harm us in years to come. The ANC's non-existent leadership could not even foresee the game of chess this would become, where they will be the end loser.
If God or Allah arrived on our doorstep would the ANC also deny them entry according to the demands of the Chinese communist party? Seems that would be the case.

Vuyani David,

I suspect your surname is Vuyani and not David, so I shall address you as such.
I dare say your grasp of international affairs is somewhat inadequate to equally partake in this specific forum. If however, you possess a degree in the field, you will have to excuse my comments as rash. For, with the same breath as stating that the Dalai Lama's visit would not have "benefited the poor and the unemployed" you seem to miss the point off the bat. Indeed, having correctly struck a core issue in that the poor indeed will not be receiving fish and bread, you fail to perceive that his visit was not intended (at least directly) to address throngs of impoverished Safrican. Rather it was for a peace summit for Nobel Prize Winners, of which two are South Africans.

Furthermore, while you may be correct in stating "With good relations with China, our country can benefit a great deal in terms of bringing the much needed investment to this country", your point seems to have little relation to the fact that our government's actions are linked not only to the seemingly simplistic correlation between economic trade and politics, but more subtly to the increasing power which China is purchasing on our continent. While in many ways, it may have been nice to see "see our bishop Tutu in our townships/mist", the point however is that even Mr Tutu recognizes that the losses due to our govt's actions, especially the moral ones, will far outweigh the perceived gains of flimsy trade to purchase cheap PRC goods to improve that country's trade balance (and not ours).

If it is cheap goods you're worried about - you needn't worry Mr Vuyani, there's plenty more of it to come.

Frankly, it is one thing to accept China as a trading partner, but something entirely different to climb so far...that is near impossible to see the light of day.

kind regards,
SG

It is a matter of choosing between a hand that is full of investment, and the one that is very empty. Easy choice ne! Congratulations ANC.

Do not think that the rest of the world has not noticed the behavior of the government. See this editorial in the Globe and Mail of Canada entitled "Loss of Courage" wherein the final comment is "All South Africans should feel shame over the actions of their government. By the result of its decision, South Africa occupies a smaller place in the world today."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090324.weDalai25/BNStory/specialComment/home

@Vuyani David

Actually, our 'good relationship' with China has killed our manufacturing sector, costing countless jobs. Not to mention their pressure to protect Mugabe and add to the suffering across (and now inside) our borders. There is nothing good about China.

And have you forgotten the oppression by China in Tibet? Have you forgotten the days when we depended on other nations to stand up to tyranny? How have we become so self centered?

If the SA government didn't want the Dalai Lama's visit to attract attention, they went about it a silly way. This has become an international story, whereas his attendance at the planned conference may have passed unnoticed.

The excuse used was flimsy and dishonest.

If they have sold out to the Chinese government, they should just say so.

The ANC says that the visa was refused, not because of pressure from China, but because the Dalai Lama's visit would have "drawn focus from the 2010 preparations".

I doubt the truth of the first point, but I find the second nauseating.

What kind of a country are we that we think our own "preparations" (preparations mark you, not even the actual tournament itself) are so important that we should ban an individual from attending a conference on PEACE?

I am so very disappointed in President Motlante for lending his name to so shameful a statement. But I don't believe it is his wish - I detect some puppet strings being manipulated by corrupt forces who are probably being "incentivised" in this matter. Encrypted faxes anyone?

In any case, if it is true that the presidency didn't want attention to be diverted, they've gone about it in exactly the wrong way. Attention is firmly diverted - the world's headlines are full of South Africa, and they're nothing to do with the World Cup!

Yet another bizarre, ill-thought out, simply wrong decision by this government. Our international standing just took another dive.

What a plunge for South Africa - from a champion of human rights and dignity to a country that consorts with human rights abusers! What do they say, "those who keep the company of wolves will also howl"?

I am ashamed of our governments' stance on this. Stinks to high heaven. Do the right thing and let the Dalai Lama into our country.