Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08PRETORIA821
2008-04-18 05:57:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Pretoria
Cable title:  

EUROPE COURTS ZUMA

Tags:  PGOV PREL SF UK DE 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO1438
RR RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHSA #0821 1090557
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 180557Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4192
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0620
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1500
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1340
RUEHTN/AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN 5531
RUEHDU/AMCONSUL DURBAN 9756
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
C O N F I D E N T I A L PRETORIA 000821 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/16/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL SF UK DE
SUBJECT: EUROPE COURTS ZUMA

Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Donald Teitelbaum. Reasons 1.4(
b) and (d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L PRETORIA 000821

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/16/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL SF UK DE
SUBJECT: EUROPE COURTS ZUMA

Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Donald Teitelbaum. Reasons 1.4(
b) and (d).


1. (C) According to press reports, ANC President Jacob Zuma
will travel to London, Paris, and Berlin during the last week
of April. A French diplomat told PolOff on 11 April that
Zuma was originally invited to France by the French
equivalent of South Africa's Business Council, but will now
also meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The
official date of the meeting with Sarkozy was yet to be
decided. (NOTE: According to diplomatic rumors in Pretoria,
this will be the third time Zuma has met Sarkozy -- first on
a secret state visit in Paris in October 2007 and then again
in February when Sarkozy was in Cape Town. END NOTE) Though
the diplomat would not reveal the agenda, the Irish
Ambassador on 14 April told PolOff that France has invested
roughly 20 million euros into South Africa recently, which he
described as "a drop in the bucket compared to what they will
reap."


2. (C) Zuma also will travel to London on 23 April to meet
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, according to British diplomats
on 14 April. However, Brown will meet with Zuma as an
official of Britain's Labor Party, not in his capacity as
Prime Minister. Zuma's travel and meetings were arranged by
John Battensby, who was described as "an ANC exile and a
fixer." When asked what was meant by "fixer," one of the
diplomats replied, "not a government official, but someone
who makes things happen." They also would not give an
agenda, but jokingly said that "this visit is not sucking up;
it's engagement."


3. (C) A German diplomat told PolOff on 15 April that Zuma,
along with ANC Head of International Affairs Ebrahim Ebrahim
and ANC Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, will be in
Germany on 21 April. He said that Germany hosts a big
coalition of "post-democratic parties" every year and that
the Social Democratic Party invited the ANC this year, along
with the Congress of Indian Workers Party and Brazilian
President Lula da Silva's Workers Party. When asked whether
Zuma would meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel, the diplomat
dryly replied, "We are not at that stage yet." Zuma will
instead meet with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier,
he said. (COMMENT: Germany's investigation into corruption
related to South Africa's 1999 arms deal likely makes this
awkward. END COMMENT)


4. (C) COMMENT. These meetings signal the ANC's intentions of
putting Zuma forward to the world as a player to be
recognized. Some European capitals are responding, hoping
that high-level meetings like these will lay the groundwork
for future engagement.
BOST