Scottish welcome for Africa's Mbeki

Thabo Mbeki visited Glasgow Caledonian University

South African President Thabo Mbeki has addressed MSPs in the Scottish Parliament on the second day of his state visit to Britain.

Mr Mbeki publicly appealed for a better deal for Africa from the developed world in an impassioned speech.

He praised the role of the Scottish people in the fight against apartheid and emphasised on the importance of education as a means of redressing inequalities in his country.

Earlier, Mr Mbeki began his visit to Scotland with a tour of Glasgow's Science Centre, where a group of protesters gathered to demonstrate against the prevalence of Aids in South Africa.

President Mbeki praised the Scots for the fight against apartheid

During his speech in the parliament, the South African leader recalled Scotland's links with his country, the role of its missionaries and teachers, and its part in the anti-apartheid movement.

He said: "We are convinced that we are at the start of a different stage in the history of the African continent, because we have a sense that things are changing and things must change.

"There is indeed a continuous spread of the process of democratisation across the continent."

Mr Mbeki told MSPs that inequalities of wealth had to be tackled in the new post-apartheid South Africa, between the developed and the developing world.

'Historic objective'

"The world cannot flourish when more than half of its population lives on less than two dollars a day, and a fifth on less than one dollar a day," he said.

"It cannot be business as usual when communicable diseases such as TB, malaria, and HIV-Aids continue to kill and prevent millions of Africans from functioning at their full potential.

"We are certain that the Scottish people and the Scottish Parliament will help us realise this historic objective."

A group of protesters were in Glasgow

He had earlier been welcomed at the Scottish Parliament by its Presiding Officer, Sir David Steel, and party leaders including Henry McLeish, First Minister in the ruling Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition.

In his address of welcome Sir David, a former leader of the Liberal Party, recalled how he first met Mr Mbeki in 1979 in Zambia.

Paying tribute to the South African president, Sir David said apartheid in South Africa had been "an organised assault on the dignity of man".

Recalling the constitutional changes that have taken place in South Africa and Scotland, Sir David said both had been accompanied by "unrealistic expectations" of instant change.

Building named

"We all know that delivery of expectations takes time, and has to be worked for," said Sir David.

During his visit to Glasgow, a group of protesters gathered to demonstrate against the prevalence of Aids in South Africa.

One said: "Our brothers and sisters in South Africa are dying because they cannot get access to drugs, medication and education around HIV to stop the pandemic."

President Mbeki had named a building at Glasgow's Caledonian University after his father Govan Mbeki, a veteran of the fight against apartheid in South Africa.

Govan Mbeki was named after the Reverend William Govan of the Glasgow Missionary Society, who was the first Principal of the Lovedale Institute in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, where Govan Mbeki and Nelson Mandela received their early education.