South Africa's Zuma in Saudi to Expand Economic Ties
South African President Jacob Zuma called for strengthening his country's economic ties with Saudi Arabia, during a visit to the kingdom on Sunday.
"While our political relations with Saudi Arabia are strong, our economic and trade ties should be reviewed and revitalized," he said in a statement.
Zuma cited agriculture, mining, infrastructure, finance, defense, gas exploration and alternative energy as sectors where cooperation could be expanded.
The South African economy has been hit by slow growth and a weak currency, which have been compounded by a drought that has resulted in higher food prices.
Zuma has been engulfed in a series of corruption scandals, the latest involving allegations that a wealthy Indian family influenced his ministerial appointments.
28 March 2016, 18:00
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So we have two main competing theories, which apply to Lebanon as well as to Africa: these people are incapble of governing themselves under modern liberal institutions like one-person/one-vote, or, the reason these states are failures-by-design is that European influence constantly undermines them. In the case of Lebanon that influence is overt, in public, bragged of (albeit some of it financed by Arab dictatorships, themselves products/beneficiaries of European influence). Can we not conclude that the same sort of influence works to keep Africa unfree?
