SA President to visit Ebola-hit Guinea
January 12, 2015, 11:52 am

Guinea boasts of having huge reserves of the world’s most coveted mineral stocks [Xinhua]

South African President Jacob Zuma will visit Ebola-hit Guinea on Tuesday following an invitation from his Guinean counterpart, H.E Alpha Condé.

“The main objective of this visit is to strengthen and deepen the existing and historical fraternal relations between South Africa and Guinea. It is expected that the visit will also give impetus to the current areas of socio-economic cooperation. The visit also provides an opportunity to assess bilateral cooperation and further commit to the strengthening of bilateral relations,” said a South Africa Foreign Ministry statement.

South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane will also be part of the ministerial delegation to Guinea. Zuma and his entourage will also visit Angola and Mozambique as part of an African outreach to boost bilateral ties.

South African companies in Guinea include MTN, Ashanti Gold Mining, ALUFER Mining, WHBO, Africa Lotto Company, Global Outdoor Systems, Mosmart South Africa and African Rainbow Minerals (ARM).

The Gueckedou prefecture in Guinea is where the Ebola outbreak first started. More than 8304 people have died up till last week in the latest outbreak, with Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia the worst hit, says UN figures.

The outbreak can be ended by mid-2015 if the world speeds up its response, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said.

WHO co-ordinator Dr Guenael Rodier told British broadcaster BBC in November that the situation in Guinea was now “relatively stable”.

“When you look in more detail, you see that it’s still quite active in the Guinea forest area [in] the south of the country,” Dr Rodier said.

However, the situation was “actually improving in a number of prefectures, especially Conakry”, where there was a fairly good understanding of how the disease was spreading.

Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have borne the brunt of 20,000 infections.

TBP