Cyril Ramaphosa's meeting not due to stability concerns
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday dismissed a report that he had met Chinese officials because of their concerns about economic and political stability in South Africa.
“In response to media queries, the presidency wishes to correct the erroneous impression created by a Johannesburg newspaper that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has met ‘with officials from the Chinese Communist Party who allegedly raised concern about the political and economic instability in South Africa’,” Ramaphosa’s spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said in a statement.
The facts were that Guandong province governor Zhu Xiaodan paid a courtesy call on Ramaphosa in Johannesburg on Friday, he said.
The presidency felt obliged, in view of the media reports, to make it clear that the courtesy call was directed at consolidating existing bilateral relations between South Africa and China.
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Specifically, the exchange focused on the prospect of a twinning agreement between Guandong and KwaZulu-Natal to enhance co-operation in a number of economic sectors.
“The suggestion that a Chinese delegation had raised national developments within South Africa is wholly incorrect, and may arise from the conflation of the courtesy visit with other meetings held on the same day on the South African economy,” Mamoepa said.