The 8th South Africa-European Union (EU) Summit held in Cape Town last week was a “watershed” moment for trade and investment relations between South Africa and the regional bloc.
This is according to President Cyril Ramaphosa who reflected on the summit in his weekly newsletter on Monday.
“As a bloc, the European Union (EU) is one of South Africa’s largest trading partners and the source of much investment in our country. Our economic ties with European countries go back to colonial times. Since the advent of democracy 30 years ago, we have steadily been growing the volume and value of trade.
“This summit will be remembered as a watershed moment in the development of our trade and investment relations. While expanding our traditional areas of cooperation, we are now focused on working together to develop the industries of the future,” the President said.
READ | South Africa-European Union Summit concludes
He stated that South Africa and the EU agreed to work together towards a Clean Trade and Investment Partnership.
“This partnership will support the development of value chains that are more environmentally sustainable. It will make South Africa and the EU more competitive in a low-carbon global economy by improving conditions for investment in the extraction and local beneficiation of rare minerals, renewable energy, low carbon hydrogen and clean technology.
“This partnership will improve cooperation between South Africa and the EU on some of the regulatory issues that constrain greater levels of trade. This work should enable South African companies to export products like sustainable fuel and electric and hybrid vehicles to the EU,” he said.
A key outcome of the SA-EU Summit was an announcement of a €4.7 billion (approximately R90 billion) investment package aimed at supporting investment projects in the country.
READ | President Ramaphosa engages EU on new investment package
According to the President, the package will “include grants and loans from European financial institutions and businesses”.
“Among other things, this investment will be used to build South Africa’s vaccine production capacity and boost local pharmaceutical value chains.
“The package will also support South Africa’s just energy transition through the development of critical raw minerals and low carbon hydrogen. In addition to investments in transport and digital infrastructure, the package will provide resources for skills development,” President Ramaphosa said.
On the global stage
The summit also reaffirmed the “unwavering commitment of South Africa and the EU to multilateralism, the consistent application of international law and the centrality of the United Nations Charter”.
“We agreed that a collective effort was needed by all countries to overcome global challenges such as climate change, pandemics, rising inequality and conflict.
“The EU shares South Africa’s view that the UN Security Council needs to be reformed so that it is more inclusive, efficient and democratic. In its composition and actions, the Security Council needs to better reflect the realities of today’s world. We also agreed to strengthen efforts to safeguard and advance human rights across the world,” he said.
Furthermore, the EU expressed its support for South Africa’s G20 Presidency this year and welcomed the country’s “focus on forging partnerships between G20 members and other African countries”.
The President said the two parties agreed that collective global effort is needed to overcome current global challenges.
“We share similar views on how to navigate these difficult times, by standing together to uphold the principles of the UN Charter, to adhere to international law and to strengthen the institutions of global cooperation.
“Above all, we are committed to the mutual well-being and development of the peoples of South Africa and all the member states of the European Union. We have a shared vision of the future and we are determined to work together to achieve it,” President Ramaphosa concluded. – SAnews.gov.za
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Scrapple
A South African, an Australian and an Englishman are all having a drink
The Englishman and South African both drink from Pint Glasses, the Australian from a bottle.
The South African, upon draining his glass, drops in back down on the bar, pulls out a pistol, and shoots the glass.
\”In South Africa, there is so much sand that I never drink from the same glass twice!\”
The Australian, having drained his bottle, sets it down upon the bar and, upon seizing the South African\’s pistol, shoots his bottle.
\”In Australia, there is so much booze that I never drink from the same brand twice!\”
The Englishman, likewise having drained his glass, sets his glass upon the table, seizes the pistol the pistol from the Australian, and shoots the South African and the Australian, quite dead.
\”In England, there are so many of you bastards that I never drink with the same two twice!\”
Copilot
The Man who could only Drink Milk
I know an old man who had lived a life full of adventure, but his health started to catch up with him. He\’d run the Boston Marathon, was an avid surfer, and climbed Everest, but he\’d started to have abdominal pains around his 85th birthday and went to see a doctor. Sadly, he ultimately was diagnosed with a rare degenerative liver disease that slowly made him allergic to everything he ate.
He kept copious notes, and as an avid gastronomist slowly grew to despair as everything he\’d spent his life enjoying became something he could no longer eat. Alcohol went first, then mushrooms, then bread, then root vegetables, then coffee, one at a time he had to remove them from his diet. The doctor was clear: if he kept eating something his liver rejected the autoimmune response would be quick and severe, and would lead to a painful death. Little by little, everything was taken away as an option, until the only thing that remained was milk.
In some ways, this actually made life easier, because the mental strain of remembering what he could and couldn\’t eat was gone, but then so was the joy in variety. But he took it in stride, and got his own cow and took classes from a farmer to learn everything he could about the only thing that could give him sustenance. And even within milk, he could still have yogurt, butter, cream, some cheeses, and other milk-derived products he hadn\’t fully rejected yet, so it wasn\’t all bad. But then one day a few months later he felt the pain again, and he knew cow\’s milk was no longer an option.
Lacking other options, he tried goat\’s milk, and he was delighted that it worked! The protein structure is just different enough that his body still tolerated it. That bought him another month. And that\’s when we came up with a wonderful plan to go on one last grand adventure around the world. If he could get one month of life out of the milk of every mammal, he\’d actually have a few more years to enjoy life to the fullest and see the world in all its beauty. Each month, we\’d pick a place with a new mammal, and he would immerse himself fully with the locals, learn all the ways to prepare the milk, and just enjoy the hand he had been dealt as much as he could.
We milked sheep in New Zealand. Camels in Egypt. Zebras in South Africa. Giant bats in Indonesia. Do you know how many Peruvian cuy you need to milk to get a single glass? I do. Even as his health slowly faded, he stayed cheerful, and I felt lucky to join him on the adventure of a lifetime. That brings us to today when he got to the very end of his spreadsheet, and declared that he was now allergic to every mammal. He\’d enjoyed his journey, but his time had come to an end, for there was nothing left to milk.
To which I said nonsense, I bet we can milk a few thousand karma out of this post.