IFP spokesperson on International Relatios said; “In 2010 when the Dalai Lama could not get a visa to come to South Africa, our government refuted the view and speculations that the visa was not granted to the Dalai Lama because of our close trade relations with China.
“Today, the debacle is about to be repeated, effectively barring the Dalai Lama from honouring an invitation for him to grace Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday celebrations in Cape Town. Yet the government still denies that the relationship with China has something to do with this.
“If President Zuma and the Minister of International Relations and Co-operation’s advisors on the essence of relations between states cared to look studiously at some of the perspectives imperative in world politics, they (the advisors) would have instantly realised that there is something like the politics of economic dominance and dependence, when the economically powerful nations of the world, like China, will author the rules of trade with impunity. South Africa should therefore resist this practise and insist on fair and reciprocal trade that must include the inviolability of South Africa’s liberty to allow the Dalai Lama to come to South Africa as a free citizen of the world.
“As it is, evidence has been forthcoming of Chinese businesses in South Africa flouting the country’s labour relations laws, and treating the African workers as the wretched of the earth. It is incumbent on South Africans not to allow their economic and political sovereignty to be sacrificed on the altar of unfair trade agreements with China or any other nation.”
