On a mission to improve ties with Africa's most prosperous nation, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met Saturday with South African President Jacob Zuma and later toured a housing project she had visited twice in the past.
After talks with Zuma in the port city of Durban, Clinton flew to Cape Town, the country's top tourist destination, where she received a rapturous reception at a housing project on the outskirts of the city.
Clinton, who also visited the Victoria Mxenge Housing Development in 1997 and '98, was greeted by a marching band, singers and hundreds of screaming youngsters. She waded into the crowd, shaking hands and dancing with a group of a cappella singers.
She was to meet later Saturday with former President F.W. de Klerk, who shares a Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela for their role in ending apartheid.
Clinton visited with South Africa's revered anti-apartheid leader while in Johannesburg on Friday. Mandela turned 91 last month.
The top US diplomat, who is on the second leg of a seven-nation tour of Africa, praised a warming in ties between the United States and South Africa since the recent elections in both countries of new presidents.
Relationship mending
President Barack Obama is eager to remake a relationship that had suffered during the Bush administration due to differences with former South African President Thabo Mbeki's government over the cause and treatment of AIDS and the crisis in Zimbabwe.
"In both countries, there are two new administrations which are taking that relationship to a level higher. That is what we are trying to do," Zuma said after the 45-minute meeting.
Clinton said Zuma and Obama had told her and South Africa's foreign minister "to put meat on the bone, to get to work to make sure the expectations of President Zuma and President Obama are met."
On the table during her discussions with Zuma, Clinton said, were African issues "from Somalia to Zimbabwe to Sudan".
On Friday, Clinton and South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane spoke of a new era in US-South African relations with the launching of bilateral committees dedicated to improving economic and political cooperation.
Clinton said the Obama administration wants Africa to be a high foreign policy priority, and would rely on "the central leadership role that South Africa plays".
She welcomed what she said would be increased cooperation in the fight against HIV/AIDS but also called on the country to do more to press for reform in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
Main deal broker
Zuma's predecessor, Mbeki, was the main broker of the deal that brought about a unity government between Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and the former opposition in March. Zuma, like Mbeki, has said the coalition is the only way forward to resolve the political crisis that has caused the economic collapse of the southern African country.
South Africa had resisted similar US appeals to take a tough line with Zimbabwe during the Bush administration. But US officials said they hoped the new South African government, in place several months fewer than the Obama administration, would adopt a more cooperative stance.