The President of the Republic will be in South Africa from Monday to Thursday, visiting Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria on an official visit to celebrate Portugal Day, which has been postponed for three years.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will arrive in Cape Town on Monday afternoon, the first point of the celebration on June 10 for the Portuguese and descendants of the Portuguese living in South Africa, which this time will start abroad, five days before the official date.
On Tuesday, the head of state will be received in Pretoria by the President of the Republic of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, as part of an official visit qualified by the South African authorities as a state visit.
Prime Minister António Costa is due to join the President of the Republic on Wednesday to celebrate in Johannesburg and Pretoria the Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese communities that have arrived from Angola.
According to the President of the Republic, the delegation for this trip to South Africa includes Foreign Minister Joao Gomes Cravinho, Defense Minister Elena Carreiras and Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities Paulo Cafofo.
Deputies for Carlos Pereira for the PS, António Malo de Abreu for the PSD, Rui Paulo Sousa for Chega, Carlos Guimarães Pinto for the Liberal Initiative and João Dias for the PCP are also in the circle, as well as the Organizing Committee of 10 June, chaired by oenologist João Nicolau de Almeida .
The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, General José Nunez da Fonseca, and the Chief of the General Staff of the Navy, Admiral Enrique Gouveia e Melo, will also be in South Africa.
The celebration of Portugal Day in South Africa was planned for 2020 along with Madeira, where many of the descendants of the Portuguese and Portuguese living in South Africa come from, but was postponed due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, in 2021 they will be held in Madeira, but not including South Africa, and in 2022 on June 10 they will be celebrated in Braga and London.
This three-year waiting period caused some complaints and regrets from members of South Africa’s sizable Portuguese expat community.
According to the Emigration Observatory, in recent years, Portuguese consular registrations in South Africa amounted to about one hundred thousand people. As for the total Portuguese population living in this country, there are scattered estimates that range from 200,000 to 450,000 people, including descendants of the Portuguese.
Most of this emigrant population is of Madeiran origin. Many Portuguese moved from the former colonies of Angola and Mozambique to South Africa.
The last time the President of Portugal was in South Africa ten years ago, in December 2013, when Anibal Cavaco Silva traveled to Johannesburg for the funeral ceremony of the historic anti-apartheid leader and the country’s first black president, Nelson Mandela.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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