President has particularly bitter words for the African nations that have joined the travel boycott
Ramaphosa said African counties in the south had proven that they have the scientific capability to manage the pandemic.
The president said the various bans imposed on several African states went against the G20 Rome spirit where the G20 countries agreed that they must open up travel because the tourism industry around the world has been devastated by the pandemic. Ramaphosa said he thought it was most unfortunate “that they too have joined in this and we hold the view that it is unscientific and we would have wanted for them to have been much more scientific so that we are able to find solutions”.
On what type of deals he was aiming for, Ramaphosa said: “These are deal agreements, memorandums of understanding that cut across a number of areas.” He said he hopes that the trip, which will be focusing on putting to effect the Africa Continental Free Trade Area agreement, will be demonstrating that “this should be a live document, an agreement that we should inject life into and remove all those colonial bearers where the north couldn’t trade with the south and where even trade can be opened up, even the trading routes that our forebears used to have in the past and were closed in the past should be reignited”.
The visit is significant and historic given that it is the first since diplomatic relations between the countries were established in May 1992.
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