JOHANNESBURG : Back to the Future
British Prime Minister John Major arrives today in South Africa, a former British colony, for talks on reviving a broad range of cultural, political and economic ties that became dormant during the dark years of apartheid.
The highlight of the three-day visit will be Major’s address to the newly elected all-race Parliament. He is the first British premier to visit the country since 1960, when Harold Macmillan formally rebuked the white supremacist government for its racist policies. Macmillan drew a frosty welcome when he warned the Parliament, then all white, that a “wind of change” and liberation was sweeping colonial Africa.
Officials said Major’s chief goal would be to increase British trade and investment in post-apartheid South Africa.
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