President Cyril Ramaphosa has arrived in Luanda, Angola, this morning, Monday, 24 November 2025, to attend the Seventh African Union-European Union Summit, from 24 to 25 November 2025.
This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the partnership between the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) since its First Summit in Cairo, Egypt, in 2000.
The structure was known at the time as the “EU-Africa Partnership”.
The “EU-Africa Partnership” was transformed into the “AU-EU Summit” in 2017, in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The Seventh AU-EU Summit takes place at a time of unprecedented threats to global peace and security, ongoing conflicts in some regions of the world.
Other global challenges include an inclination to unilateralism on the part of certain states.
The Luanda Summit does, however, follow the success under the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa of the 2025 G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg.
The African Union and the European Union contributed significantly to the consensus achieved during South Africa’s year-long G20 Presidency on the key issues facing the global economy and human society.
South Africa, as a Member State of the AU, will prioritise support from the EU region for the Second Ten-Year Implementation Plan (STYIP) of the AU Agenda 2063.
The Summit is a platform for AU and EU member states to strengthen political and economic ties between two significant world regions.
The African Union will be led by host President João Lourenço as Chairperson of the AU, and His Excellency Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Chairperson of the AU Commission.
Europe will be represented by the President of the European Council, António Costa, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and the Leaders of Denmark, France, Hungary, Croatia, Spain, the Czech Republic, Italy, Finland, Poland, Slovakia, Portugal, Ireland and Germany.
The Seventh AU-EU Partnership Summit in Luanda will be underpinned by two Plenary Thematic Sessions, which illustrate established areas of cooperation between the African Union and the European Union, namely:
- Thematic Session I: Peace, Security and Governance and Multilateralism.
- Thematic Session II: Prosperity, People – Migration and Mobility.
President Ramaphosa is accompanied by the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Mr Ronald Lamola.
Africa Fact: Evidence discovered in 1978 showed that East Africans were making steel for more than 1,500 years: “Assistant Professor of
Anthropology Peter Schmidt and Professor of Engineering Donald H. Avery have found as long as 2,000 years ago Africans living on the western shores of Lake Victoria had produced carbon steel in preheated forced draft furnaces, a method that was technologically more sophisticated than any developed in Europe until the mid-nineteenth century.”
Pocket Mazda
Bliksem – to hit. This is a derogative term meaning to hit or punch someone.Example: “I’ll bliksem you!”
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Diary of an Englishman after he moves to South Africa….
**August 1**: Just got transferred with work from London, UK to our new home in Phalaborwa, Limpopo, South Africa. Now this is a town that knows how to live! Beautiful, sunny days and warm, balmy evenings. I watched the sunset from a deckchair by our pool yesterday. It was beautiful. I’ve finally found my new home. I love it here.
**September 1:** Really heating up now. It got to 31 today. No problem though. Living in air-conditioned home, driving air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun every day like this. I’m turning into a sun-worshipper – no blasted rain like back in London! Had the back yard landscaped with tropical plants today. Lots of palms and rocks. No more mowing lawns for me! Another scorcher today, but I love it here. It’s Paradise !
**October 1:** The temperature hasn’t been below 35 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least today it’s windy though. Keeps the flies off a bit. Acclimatizing is taking longer than we expected. Fell asleep by the pool yesterday. Got third degree burns over 60% of my body. Missed three days off work. What a dumb thing to do. Got to respect the old sun in a climate like this!
**October 25:** This wind is a bastard. It feels like a giant fucking blow dryer. And it’s hot as hell! The home air conditioner is on the blink and the repair man charged R200 just to drive over and tell me he needs to order parts from @#$# Johannesburg. The wife & the kids are complaining.
**October 30:** The temperature’s up around 40 and the parts still haven’t arrived for the fucking air conditioner. House is an oven so we’ve all been sleeping outside by the pool for 3 nights now. Bleeding R4 million house and we can’t even go inside. Why the hell did I ever come here?
**November 4:** Finally got the fucking air-conditioner fixed. It cost R1,500 and gets the temperature down to around 35 degrees. Stupid repairman. Fucking thief. If one more smart bastard says ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I’m going to fucking throttle him. Fucking heat! By the time I get to work, the car radiator is boiling over, my fucking clothes are soaking fucking wet and I smell like baked cat. Fucking place is the end of the Earth.
**November 9:** Tried to run some errands after work, wore shorts, and sat on the black leather upholstery in my car. I thought my fucking backside was on fire. I lost 2 layers of flesh, all the hair on the backs of my legs and off my fucking behind. Now the car smells like burnt hair, fried bum and baked cat. The Weather report might as well be a fucking recording – hot and sunny. Hot and sunny, Hot and fucking sunny. It’s been too hot to do anything for 2 bleeding months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Fuck!!
**November 15:** Doesn’t it ever rain in this darn place? Water restrictions will be next, so my R5,000 worth of palms might just dry up and blow into the fucking pool. The only things that thrive in this hell-hole are the fucking flies. You don’t dare open your mouth for fear of swallowing half a dozen of the little buzzards!
**November 20:** Welcome to HELL! It got to 45 degrees today. Now the air conditioner is gone in my car. The repair man came to fix it and said, ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I wanted to shove the car up his backside. Anyway, had to spend the R2,500 of the mortgage payment to bail me out of jail for assaulting the stupid fool. Fucking PHALABORWA! What kind of sick, demented idiot would want to live here!
**December 1:** WHAT!!!! The FIRST day of Summer!!!!
You are fucking kidding me, right?