Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

South Africa is to dedicate a total of R388 million towards its multilateral diplomatic and peacekeeping initiatives in Africa.

Tabling his annual budget speech in Parliament Wednesday, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said R275 million had been given to the African Rennaisance Fund, while the country's commitments to host the Pan African Parliament required R113 million from the fiscus.

The African Renaissance Fund is the organ through which South Africa funds its interventions on the continent for peace-keeping operations, assistance with elections and post conflict reconstruction amongst others.

"South Africa's foreign policy objectives seek to achieve greater unity and solidarity between African countries, accelerate political and socio-economic integration and promote peace, security and stability," Minister Manuel said.

"Support for key institutions of the African Union remains a priority," he said.

The minister outlined that in a short period of time, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) had assisted in significantly reducing a number of conflicts on the continent.

South Africa currently has peacekeeping troops deployed in a number of other African states in need of increased security, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Sudan.

The country is also participating in a significant way in post conflict resolutions, in concert with the AU, in countries including the DRC and Ivory Coast.

In the DRC alone last year, the SANDF and South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission undertook the major logistical task of supporting the central African nation's first democratic elections in over four decades.

South African organisations printed the ballots, distributed them across the vast, resource rich nation and assisted with ICT support for the monitoring and counting process there.

"The SANDF receives additional allocations to acquire airlift capacity, for exchange rate adjustments to the strategic defence package and for the military skills development programme, an innovative programme aimed at introducing young people to the military," said Minister Manuel.

In his State of the Nation Address earlier this month, President Thabo Mbeki described South Africa's interventions to assist securing peace and security on the continent in glowing terms.

"Among the greatest achievements of the peoples of Africa in the past two-and-half years has been the restoration of peace in the Great Lakes Region.

"We are proud, as South Africans, of the role that our people have played in helping to bring this about - from the young men and women in our National Defence Force to employees of public and private institutions who gave of their time to ensure that the African dream finds practical realisation in the homeland of Patrice Lumumba," Mr Mbeki said.

The president assured that the country would continue to work with the people of the DRC, Burundi, the Comoros and Sudan in particular, to ensure that peace and stability attained there, transformed smoothly into concerted action for economic reconstruction and social development.

"Our government will respond appropriately and as our capacity permits, to the call of the African Union for assistance to the people and government of Somalia," Mr Mbeki said.

"Critical in this regard, are the initiatives under way to ensure that the protagonists within Somalia interact with one another to find a solution that is inclusive and practicable, based on the need to achieve national reconciliation."

Due to its commitments to peacekeeping initiatives in other African countries, South Africa has indicated it will not be able to send a military presence to Somalia.

The Department of Foreign Affairs indicated however, that the country would send logistical and technical support as well as aid.