The President is staying at the Atlantis Resort, one of three hotels where some employees have deliberately slowed the pace of their work
Mr. Christie indicated that the industrial action, which came to his surprise, was in poor timing as it coincided with the president’s visit.
“I have to apologise to your Excellencies on behalf of all of the people of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas that you and perhaps members of your delegation may have experienced some inconvenience as a result of a decision to engage in a form of industrial action during your presence in our country,” he said.
During his address, President Mbeki elaborated on some of the difficulties facing the new South Africa like striking the balance between the black majority and the five million white minorities.
Mr. Mbeki also said that he thought there were several possibilities for Bahamian investors in South Africa in addition to some of the Bahamian investments that already exist in South Africa like the wine industry.
“That intervention by the Bahamian investors has actually helped to change the complexion of an industry that has forever been white,” the president said. “It breaks a barrier in the sense that here are investors from The Bahamas that are succeeding…why can’t we do the same thing.”
He added that South African officials will look at ways to make it easier for Bahamians to invest in South Africa by, for example, waiving the visa requirement to travel there.
On Monday night, at a State Dinner in honour of President and Madame Mbeki at the Atlantis Resort, Mr. Christie and Mr. Mbeki focused on strengthening diplomatic relations between The Bahamas and South Africa, Prime Minister Christie challenged both countries to reach for a new level of co-operation as 2003 ends and 2004 begins.
“Let the ending of this old year and the beginning of the new year be symbolic of the ending of centuries of separation between our two peoples and the beginning of an era of cooperation, of understanding and of mutual respect,” Mr. Christie said.
President Mbeki said that both the countries of Africa and the Caribbean have a duty to act in solidarity, as part of the developing regions, to ensure that at all times the interests of the poor drives the global agenda.
The president also expressed gratitude to The Bahamas for the role it played in the dismantling of the apartheid system.
“We [South Africans] salute Bahamians for your solidarity with our own struggle for freedom from apartheid and colonialism,” Mr. Mbeki said.
He added that it was during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 1985 in Nassau that a resolution pushed by the late Sir Lynden Pindling was adopted to establish the Eminent Persons Group.
That group agreed to ban all new loans to the former racist regime in South Africa and imposed a number of sanctions.
“Today as free Africans, we rejoice that we are here to thank you [Bahamians] and celebrate freedom with you as co-fighters for that liberation and as our true brothers and sisters,” President Mbeki said.
Julian Reid, The Bahama Journal
