Ekaterina Zaharieva meeting the foreign minister of the South African Republic
29 March 2018 News
One of the priorities of our foreign policy is to restore our excellent traditional, longstanding relations with the countries of Africa. We have 25,000 compatriots in the Republic of South Africa, who are a bridge between our two countries. I also hope that our business contacts develop even further.
This was the message that Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva addressed to Mrs. Lindiwe Sisulu, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of the South Africa's Republican, with whom she met in Pretoria today.
"Over the years, in our quest for new partnerships, which is fair enough, we seem to have forgotten the older, traditional ones. It is now our goal to reinvigorate them and have a stronger role to play on the African continent, with so many countries doing business over here.
I think our national business is strong enough, and we have all the interest to boost our trade and attract investment. It is also important to restore the traditions we had in the past as regards the higher education of students from this continent," Zaharieva said. There are South African undergraduates being trained in Plovdiv at present, while young South Africans are also expected to start their undergraduate studies in Stara Zagora.
"Quite a few in my own party, the African National Congress, were educated in Bulgaria. My late husband, of Kenyan descent, had also studied political science in Sofia – I know a great deal about your country from him. Some of our ambassadors speak excellent Bulgarian as they got their degrees in your country," secretary Sisulu said.
She thanked for Bulgaria's interest in the training of students from her country and pointed out that there is now a great demand for agricultural specialists qualified to apply the latest trends in land cultivation.
Minister Zaharieva referred to the example of several South African investment funds acquiring three shopping centres in Sofia in 2017. South African businesses are currently negotiating the opportunities to launch three other shopping malls in Sofia; they also own land and already have clearance to build shopping centres in Plovdiv and Varna.
Another robust South African investment is in the village of Musachevo, where more than 450 Bulgarian workers are making upholstery for luxury BMW models delivered to the automobile giant’s factories in Germany.
The two foreign secretaries exchanged invitations for bilateral visits. The Bulgarian first diplomat highlighted the advantages of our country as tourist destination as well as with regard to the IT sector. South Africa has also become attractive for Bulgarian visitors.
During the meeting, Zaharieva raised the issue of the 6-year-old Bulgarian girl who was tragically orphaned after 12 February when both her parents were murdered in their home in Cape Town. The Bulgarian side has requested that the Bulgarian ID documents of the child and her 27-year-old stepbrother be returned and the girl be allowed to travel back to Bulgaria to be accommodated with family members.
The girl is currently placed with a family close to her mother and is being cared for by a social worker while awaiting a South African court decision over custody.
"I am extremely sorry. Please take my most sincere condolences vis-à-vis this case. My staffers will take it on immediately," secretary Sisulu said, and ordered her legal counsel to study the papers.
Minister Zaharieva also discussed the issue of three Bulgarian citizens, who have been detained and already spent several years in South African custody, while there have been no developments in the criminal proceedings.
The Bulgarian side also asked for assistance in the process of providing the Bulgarian South African diaspora with a permit to build the first Bulgarian Orthodox church in Africa. Funding has already been earmarked for the project.
Ekaterina Zaharieva and Lindiwe Sisulu also discussed the fight against illegal migration, trafficking in human beings and hate speech, as well as a number of other issues on the international agenda.
The diplomatic relations between the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of South Africa were established in February 1992 at ambassadorial level; their 25th anniversary was recently celebrated.
excellent relations have developed within the relatively short period since. In 2001, RSA supported Bulgaria's candidacy for a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2002–2003, while in 2006 and 2010 Bulgaria voted to grant RSA’s a non-permanent member status for, respectively, 2007–2008 and 2011–2012.
The last Bulgarian foreign minister visit to RSA took place in 2009. Minister Ivailo Kalfin visited Pretoria within his whistlestop tour of six African nations. In 2011, RSA’s then minister of international relations and cooperation, Ms. Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, paid a visit to Sofia.
The two countries have enjoyed intensive trade and economic relations.
Trade reached $ 96.7 million in 2016, with Bulgaria having a positive balance with $ 56.3 million of exports. Trade between the two countries amounted to $ 43.3 million for the first six months of 2017, with Bulgarian exports to RSA accounting for $ 21.6 million of it.
Somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000 Bulgarians are currently living in South Africa, mainly in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban. Three Bulgarian diaspora organisations operate in the country – one for Pretoria and Johannesburg, one in Cape Town and one in Durban.
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