Minister goes public

As expected, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma (pictured above with UCT vice-chancellor Professor Njabulo Ndebele), minister of foreign affairs, was put through the mill at the inaugural Imbizo of the national Department of Foreign Affairs, held in Jameson Hall in August. Questions about Zimbabwe (it came up a few times), the shady behaviour of South African mining companies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the role of women in politics, and former Haiti president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's exile in South Africa, were but some of the many fired at Dlamini Zuma at the event. The Imbizo is based on the Cabinet-approved process of "an unmediated engagement" between government and the public. Its purpose is to provide the academic community with an opportunity to engage the Department of Foreign Affairs on key foreign policy issues, including NEPAD, African Peer Review Mechanism, the African Union and the diaspora, South-South cooperation and other topics.