US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rounded off the South African leg of her African tour on Saturday with a visit to housing projects on the Cape Flats.
At the Victoria Mxenge project at Philippi, a marimba choir welcomed her with a rousing version of "Daar kom die Alibama", a song about the arrival of a Confederate raider in Table Bay during the American Civil War.
Clinton laid a symbolic brick for one of the project houses during a previous visit in 1998, with her husband former president Bill Clinton.
The Mxenge project, named after an assassinated anti-apartheid activist, consists of self-help housing erected mostly by women under the auspices of the South African Homeless People's Federation.
The US government has contributed $300 000 to the project.
Clinton was accompanied by two members of congress, Donald Payne and Nita Lowey, Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson, and ambassador-designate to South Africa Donald Gips.
Their bus was met by dancing women in traditional Xhosa dress, accompanied by the T Ngwenya Gospel Brass Band.
After a brief meeting with Western Cape housing MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela, Clinton spoke to Vayithi Mkhize, owner of the house she helped with in 1998, who showed her the completed dwelling as well as the Zama Zama spaza shop and a garage he had built on to it.
Clinton also posed with the choir for media photos and television footage, joining in their dancing.
From Philippi she and her entourage went on to another federation project, at Site C in Khayelitsha. She was scheduled to hold a closed meeting with former president FW de Klerk at a city hotel later Saturday afternoon.
Clinton is on an 11-day trip to the continent. She has already visited Kenya and after South Africa will travel to Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde.
- Sapa
At the Victoria Mxenge project at Philippi, a marimba choir welcomed her with a rousing version of "Daar kom die Alibama", a song about the arrival of a Confederate raider in Table Bay during the American Civil War.
Clinton laid a symbolic brick for one of the project houses during a previous visit in 1998, with her husband former president Bill Clinton.
The Mxenge project, named after an assassinated anti-apartheid activist, consists of self-help housing erected mostly by women under the auspices of the South African Homeless People's Federation.
The US government has contributed $300 000 to the project.
Clinton was accompanied by two members of congress, Donald Payne and Nita Lowey, Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson, and ambassador-designate to South Africa Donald Gips.
Their bus was met by dancing women in traditional Xhosa dress, accompanied by the T Ngwenya Gospel Brass Band.
After a brief meeting with Western Cape housing MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela, Clinton spoke to Vayithi Mkhize, owner of the house she helped with in 1998, who showed her the completed dwelling as well as the Zama Zama spaza shop and a garage he had built on to it.
Clinton also posed with the choir for media photos and television footage, joining in their dancing.
From Philippi she and her entourage went on to another federation project, at Site C in Khayelitsha. She was scheduled to hold a closed meeting with former president FW de Klerk at a city hotel later Saturday afternoon.
Clinton is on an 11-day trip to the continent. She has already visited Kenya and after South Africa will travel to Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Liberia and Cape Verde.
- Sapa
No comments:
Post a Comment