Social distancing was enforced as the envoys made short speeches expressing wishes of broadening and deepening bilateral relations with South Africa before presenting the president with the letters from their heads of state.

Some of the ambassadors managed to make powerful use of the two minutes allotted to them.

Sweden’s Håkan Joholt recalled how he’d become an anti-apartheid activist at age 25 before serving 23 years as a member of parliament.

“I have come here to build bridges and to forge people-to-people ties between Swedes and South Africans,” he said. “What we can do together is fight for democracy, human rights, peace and a sustainable environment,” he said.

Entering his second term as ambassador of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, Mohammed Beissat said Polisario and the ANC forged ties as liberation movements at the most difficult times for their countries.

He recalled how Oliver Tambo visited the Western Sahara and returned to South Africa with apartheid-built tanks captured by the Saharawi from the Moroccan.

“Now Mr President the Western Sahara faces fresh aggression from Morocco,” he said referring to the kingdom breaking the 30 year old truce signed under UN auspices that ended the war that followed Morocco’s 1975 invasion of the former Spanish colony.

“We are confident we can overcome yet another challenge from the illegal occupier, especially since we are assured of your support and the solidarity of your government and people,” said the ambassador.

Braving a heatwave that took the mercury into the thirties, the ambassadors were greeted by a guard-of-honour before entering the guest house to have their exchange with the President.

In addition to the Western Sahara and Sweden, Ramaphosa received credentials from the ambassadors of 

Vietnam, North Korea, Iran, Botswana, Cote’Ivoire, Bangladesh, Ukraine, Egypt, China, Sweden, Mauritius, Pakistan, Sudan and South Sudan, Slovenia, Finland.

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A massive campaign in the north of the country appears to have beaten Boko Haram’s efforts to stop vaccination against this painful wasting disease.

Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan are the three countries on earth where polio still exists.

If there is not another case recorded in Kanu State in the next fortnight, Nigeria will come off that list and Africa will be polio free.

Boko Haram has used a combination of intimidation and misinformation to stop the vaccination campaign, leaving 66 000 children in northern villages vulnerable.

Authorities, using soldiers and volunteers, have  toured these villages to counter false claims that vaccination causes impotence and is a Christian plot against the Muslim community.

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There were 25 338 migrants that made this journey in the first 19 weeks of this year.

628 died attempting it.

Italy,  with 41% of the traffic, once again took in the lion’s share of African migrants.

This was followed by Greece with 38%, leaving Spain with 21%. 

This year’s number is less than half the number who landed in the same period last last and about 13% of the number of migrants in 2016.

The International Organisation For Migration says the largest number of migrants coming to Europe from North Africa are Tunisians, followed by Eritreans, Nigerians, Sudanese, Pakistanis, Malians, Guineans and Senegalese.

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This follows the refusal of the United States and other Western powers to sell weapons to the cash-strapped state to fight Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram.

The Western arms boycott against Nigeria is based on concerns of human rights abuses by the Abuja government.

Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar says Africa’s largest air force was driven to seeking hardware from other sources to wage the fight against Boko Haram.

Nigerian troops are being trained in Pakistan, China, the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, Egypt and Russia.

Abubakar does not say how the oil-dependent state will pay for the planes with incomes from this commodity dramatically reduced by price decreases.

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However the Goa Declaration issued after the gathering of five emerging powers including South Africa  did not mention cross-border terrorism mainly due to China’s resistance

The theme was terrorism all the way at the BRICS summit meeting in Goa.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the forum to keep up his attack on Pakistan after a border dispute.

Modi’s using  multilateral forums to lash out at Pakistan for supporting terrorism.

He insisted there was unanimity within BRICS on the issue of terrorism.

But the Chinese articulation was more muted. Speaking during the plenary session, President Xi Jinping said it was imperative to step up coordination on major international issues, regional hotspots and find a political solution to these.

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