Jean-Jacques Cornish
PRETORIA (SOUTH Africa)- Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor on Monday said African countries should join South Africa in stressing that Morocco’s continued illegal occupation of Western Sahara was unacceptable.
She was speaking at a memorial service she hosted for the Western Sahara ambassador Radhi Bashir who died last week.
Tributes to the late Bashir came from Pandor and the dean of the diplomatic corps, Congolese ambassador Bene M’poko, among others.
Pandor said the best way of honouring Bashir, who died after a short illness, was to ensure Morocco was held to its promise to hold referendum allowing the occupied people of Western Sahara to express their self-determination.
She said it was unacceptable for Morocco, as one African Union member, to be the last colonialist on the continent through its occupation of Western Sahara.
SOURCE: EYEWITNESS NEWS
090/500/60 (SPS)