President Cyril Ramaphosa has revealed the details of what he described as a “patronizing” and “disrespectful” phone call from Europe to alert of him of the decision on the travel bans.
A few weeks ago, several developed countries red listed travel between their countries and Southern Africa after the discovery of the Omicron variant.
While addressing the Senegal Peace and Security Forum in Dakar on Monday, Ramaphosa scolded the approach of the global north to partnership and multilateralism.
He said that Africa wanted a relationship with the global north that was based on mutual respect but it has not been forthcoming from the latter, while fraternalism underpinned the continent’s approach to partnership.
To demonstrate this point, he described the abrasive manner in which European countries treated South Africa over the Omicron variant.
In the one-way conversation, he said the European leaders said, “I am sorry to tell you we are banning travel, thank you, goodbye.”
He said there was no discussion nor attempts to hear what Pretoria’s views were.
“We as Africans are respectful. We have always been – and maybe that is where our mistake is and why we were colonised in the way we were colonised because we respect too much, and we say respect us as well.”
President of the European Union Council Charles Michel reassured African leaders in attendance of the region’s commitment to partnership – but did not address the issue over the bans – except to say the expressions that there was medical apartheid in the handling of the pandemic was “dramatic”.
Sources: MSN, Soeknet
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