According to High Commissioner Barban, South Africa and Canada’s relationship is based on the common shared values of equality, democracy, peace, security and prosperity. He notes that the strong ties between the two countries are rooted partially in the leading role Canada played in international efforts to pressure South Africa to dismantle its apartheid system and promote the establishment of a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, democratic society. Since South Africa's transition from apartheid and its first multi-racial elections in 1994, Canada-South Africa relations has been friendly and cooperative.
Post-1994, Canada supported South Africa's re-entry into a broad range of multilateral organisations and since then, the two countries have worked closely on important multilateral issues. It is worth noting that South Africa's 1996 Constitution and Bill of Rights draw heavily on Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. “We funded a lot of capacity building for the new democratic South Africa. We also had teams come here as consultants in helping the South Africans put together the documents that are required to run a new country and amongst them was the constitution… Canada amended its constitution in the early 1980s so we were fresh from the experience and we brought our experts to South Africa,” HC Barban explained.
Additionally both countries have signed a number of agreements and are likely to sign more in the coming months covering areas such as nuclear industrial cooperation, space agencies collaboration, and science and technology.
• Promote and maintain high standard skills, professionalism, ethics and integrity at all levels of government.
Importantly, Canada supports the South African National Development Plan “to make South Africa a better functioning state and bureaucracy for its people,” HC Barban says.
Along this vein, Canada is a significant investor in South Africa with investments largely focused on the mineral and mining sector, as well as transportation, food processing, hospitality, information and communication technologies, and instrumentation sectors. Top Canadian exports to South Africa include power generation machinery, electrical machinery, sulphur, optical equipment, pharmaceuticals, malt, pork and vehicles. South Africa’s exports to Canada include citrus, beverages (wine), nuclear machinery parts and minerals such as iron, titanium, chromium and copper.
2014 trade statistics between Canada and South Africa revealed that Canadian Exports to South Africa totalled $439,256,338 while imports amounted to $1,104,140,558 resulting in South Africa enjoying a trade surplus of $664,884,220. “South Africans would be pleased to know that it is Canadians buying South African products. While we would like to see it a bit more balanced in bilateral trade, an increase in total trade between the two countries is even more important,” HC Barban affirms.
In an effort to achieve this objective, HC Barban notes that Export Development Canada (EDC) is set to open an office in Johannesburg. “It is our national credit agency for export development. It is a bank that provides finance to those who want to import or do business with Canadian companies; so it is a credit facility. It is opening an office in Rosebank, Johannesburg around October this year co-locating with our Trade Office which promotes trade and investment between Canadian businesses and South Africa, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius and Namibia,” he explains.
As HC Barban is set to complete his tour of duty in Pretoria he reflects on the last two and half years spent in South Africa with “its natural beauty and rich diversity.” He observes that South Africa is an “intellectually stimulating place to be” and has found it fascinating to see how “this country continues to develop towards a functioning democracy that everybody wants to see it become.” He adds that he has witnessed the growth in people-to-people relations with a strong flow of people both ways.
In looking to the future, HC Barban emphasises that there is room for the relationship to grow and, despite the geographic distance between Canada and South Africa, there is a common desire to broaden and deepen relations.