Statement by the City’s Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille
City awaits clarity on Dalai Lama’s visa application for World
Peace Summit
The City of Cape Town notes today’s media reports related to the possible
denial of a visa to the Dalai Lama to attend the World Peace Summit due to
be held in Cape Town in October.
We wish to make it very clear that neither the City of Cape Town as the host
city of the summit, nor the organising committee of the summit, have
received any official confirmation about the status of the Dalai Lama’s visa
application.
The City did write earlier this week to the relevant officials in the Department
of International Relations and Cooperation in an effort to seek official
confirmation of the status of the application. We are still awaiting a formal
response.
We remain hopeful that the National Government will grant the visa, in order
to spare South Africa the international humiliation of failing to do so. The
failure to grant a visa would be made even more inexplicable given the fact
that this year’s World Peace Summit will commemorate the life of the late
former president, Nelson Mandela, and his work as a global peace icon, as
well as celebrate 20 years of South Africa’s constitutional democracy. In this
context, it would be hard to imagine why the National Government would
not do everything possible to support this important and fitting tribute to
Nelson Mandela.
We have also received no official confirmation from any of the attending
Nobel Peace Laureates that they intend to boycott the summit, should the
Dalai Lama’s visa application ultimately be rejected. There is in fact a strong
sense that the summit should go ahead in those circumstances, and that the
Nobel Laureates would protest the Dalai Lama’s exclusion in the event that
he is refused entry into South Africa.
I am further informed that the Nelson Mandela, FW de Klerk, Desmond and
Leah Tutu, and Chief Albert Luthuli foundations intend to write to President
Zuma requesting him to ensure that the Dalai Lama’s application is granted.
It needs to be noted that South Africa is the only country in the world that has
had four Nobel Peace Prize laureates – further underscoring the powerful
symbolic importance of the summit being held in Cape Town.
The City of Cape Town is therefore continuing with the preparations for the
World Summit and we remain confident that it will be a success, especially at
a time in the world when we need now, more than ever, to focus on how we
resolve and manage conflict.