Singapore prez visits Gandhi settlement

Singapore President Sellapan Ramanathan and a 65-member business and government delegation have visited the Mahatma Gandhi Settlement in Durban.

Ramanathan arrived here after visiting Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. He first held top-level talks with President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria last week to promote trade and economic relations. This is the first visit by a Singaporean President to South Africa.

He was accompanied to the Gandhi Settlement by the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Sbu Ndebele, and a host of local political and business leaders.

The Singapore leader told journalists accompanying him that it was indeed an honour for him to visit the settlement where Gandhi first devised his philosophy of Satyagraha or Passive Resistance. "It's an opportunity that I would not have missed," he said.

Ramanathan would visit the Chief Albert Luthuli Museum in the town of KwaDukuza, about 75km north of Durban, tomorrow. Gandhi and Luthulu are revered in KwaZulu-Natal as the two leaders promoted peaceful resistance against all forms of oppression.

Luthuli was the first South African leader to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

"The visit by Ramanathan to South Africa marks a clear resurgence of interest in our bilateral relations," said the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government.

"The focus of the visit is to facilitate and promote trade and economic relations. New investment clusters and zones will be identified to facilitate investment in infrastructure and enterprises.

"The visit is aimed to achieve the objectives of the New Africa-Asia Strategic Partnership adopted in April 2005," said the provincial government.