In a press conference, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South Africa’s foreign minister, said South Africa had no plans at the moment to recognize the rebel government if Gadhafi falls. Nkoana-Mashabaneadded that Pretoria was not facilitating Gadhafi’s exit and did not know the 69-year-old leader’s current whereabouts.
“The Libyans themselves must be given the chance to decide the future if their country and the future of Gaddafi,” Nkoana-Mashabana said. Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Johannesburg said Angola and Zimbabwe had been cited as countries the embattled leader was most likely to go to.
South Africa, a continental power broker, has sought to bring rebels and Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s forces together for talks to end the conflict. That stance hasn’t changed.
Even as rebel trucks streamed into the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Monday, South Africa gave no indication it would recognize a rebel-led government. The U.S. and the U.K. are among more than 30 countries that recognize the rebel body, known as the National Transitional Council, as Libya’s legitimate government.
Pretoria instead has supported an African Union plan for a transitional government once there is a “durable cease-fire.” The transitional government should include elements from both the rebel forces and the current regime—but not Col. Gadhafi—and move toward drafting a new constitution and holding elections, according to the South African Minister of International Affairs, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.
“If this government falls, there is no government,” she told reporters at a briefing. more