HT African crisis.Brendan Boyle
Eric Bost, the new US ambassador to South Africa, weighed in on the 2010 security debate this week, warning that few would travel to South Africa for the Fifa World Cup if crime continued at current levels.
In his first major interview since he arrived in South Africa, Bost told the Sunday Times: “I look at things somewhat simplistically on occasion and the issue for me is this: who is going to be interested in spending a significant amount of money coming here on holiday, to have a good time, when you’re concerned about the possibility of getting hurt?”
Bost, a black Republican chosen by US President George W Bush himself for the Pretoria assignment, spoke with candour, warning that crime was the first concern of nearly every ambassador he had met here and of the US investor community.
He said his German equivalent had told him about a group of German tour operators who had visited South Africa soon after the World Cup to look at the facilities that would be available to soccer tourists in 2010. “They were robbed. We know this. They got on the bus, they robbed them. So you’re in Berlin, you’re sitting at your desk, someone comes in and they say: ‘You know, I’m thinking of going to the World Cup down in South Africa, what do you think about that?’ What are you going to say?”
Bost said the US wanted to work with South Africa on strategies to get more police onto the streets to fight crime.
“In the three and a half months that I have been here, I have never, ever seen a local police officer just drive through [my neighbourhood] in a car.
“I’m not there a lot, but on occasion you would think that just through happenstance you would see somebody — just once or twice,” he said.
Bost expressed disappointment at the lukewarm reception he had received from the government, especially those involved in fighting HIV/Aids. “I have been trying to reach out to the Health Minister [Manto Tshabalala-Msimang] and then, when the Deputy President [Phumzile Mlambo-Ngucka] was given the responsibility for HIV, I reached out to her and tried to meet with her.
“We give you more money than any other country in the world to help you address HIV and Aids, we give you more money to address HIV and Aids than all the donors combined, and I would like to have a conversation with the leadership in the country that is responsible for managing it and I haven’t been able to meet them.
“We’ve been reaching out for four months. You can’t have a partnership if only one side is talking.”
He said South Africa was a wonderful country with fantastic potential, but the balance sheet of positives and negatives was tilting towards the negative.
Wotta great example of diplotalk! Kudos!