Bolivia's socialist president-elect hails new ties with South Africa
'America's nightmare' explains how he plans to harness country's riches for his peopleJanuary 12, 2006 Edition 1
Peter Fabricius Foreign Editor
President Thabo Mbeki has offered "strong political support" to Bolivia's controversial socialist president-elect, Evo Morales.
The Bolivian said after meeting Mbeki at the Union Buildings yesterday that South Africa and Bolivia would be establishing formal relations. The countries currently do not exchange ambassadors.
Morales, the first indigenous person to be elected a president in South America, describes himself as "America's nightmare" because of his plans to nationalise Bolivia's natural-gas industry and to overturn the neo-liberal economic model favoured by the US.
Morales, originally a peasant farmer, rose through the ranks of peasant and workers' movements to shock South America by winning the presidential election last month.
He is meeting a wide range of South African political and civil society leaders, mainly to learn from SA's experience of nation-building, reconciliation and political transformation.
Morales said after meeting Mbeki: "I feel we have strong political support from a very important country" for the transformation he will embark on after being inaugurated on January 22.
The countries shared the experience of an indigenous people subjected to discrimination and poverty, and he greatly admired the transformation that had occurred here.
Asked if Mbeki had also supported his plans for nationalising the gas industry and restructuring the economy to restore control to the indigenous people, he said he had asked only for advice on political transformation.
"That's all we talked about for the time being. We did not talk about gas.
"Once we have established formal relations, we will see what other areas we can work on, such as economic relations." At two press conferences yesterday, Morales clarified his nationalisation policy, stressing that he intended to nationalise Bolivia's natural resources - but not the multinational companies currently extracting them or their plants.
These companies could remain"as partners but not as owners or masters" and would be allowed to recover their investments in Bolivian gas and to have access to their profits.
A source said Morales' gas policy might not be as radical as it first sounded. He noted that at a meeting with outgoing Johnnic chairman Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday, Ramaphosa had explained to Morales the South African government's policy of the state assuming ownership of mineral resources so that they could be licensed to private business.
"He seemed to have no problem with that," the source said.
Morales held out an olive branch to the US yesterday, saying he forgave the White House for vilifying him by as a "mafioso" and a "narco-terrorist". These epithets were apparently inspired by his refusal to cave in to pressure from US drugs authorities to destroy Bolivia's coca plantations.
The US fears they will be used to make cocaine for export, but the growers insist they are used only to make an indigenous stimulant.
Morales said he was ready to accept an offer from the US for talks, but stressed that the agenda would have to include the restructuring of the Bolivian economy.
He described himself as "an advocate and defender of Che Guevara", the late revolutionary comrade of Cuban President Fidel Castro. "But my difference in this new millennium is that we want to make changes through votes and not bullets," he explained.
This would be done through the establishment of a democratic constituent assembly to rewrite Bolivia's constitution.
Learning about South Africa's own Constituent Assembly is one of the main aims of his visit.
Yesterday Morales also met Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad, and SA Revenue Service head and former Codesa co-chair Pravin Gordhan.
Today he was to meet former president F W de Klerk and Desmond Tutu before completing his international tour in Brazil.
