Freezing rain and fog in Ottawa made for a miserable day in Toronto. South African President Thabo Mbeki was to deliver a keynote address at U of T yesterday, but his flight out of the nation’s capital didn’t leave the ground until after his speech was to begin.

Mbeki was in Ottawa meeting with Prime Minister Jean Chretien as part of the African leader’s first state visit to Canada. Scheduled in the three-day whirlwind tour was a Wednesday morning speech in Hart House’s Great Hall. But a minor ice storm in Ottawa on Tuesday night forced flight cancellations and delays, and threw a wrench in the president’s travel plans.

At 10 a.m. Wednesday morning, just as Mbeki was due to take the speaker’s podium, U of T President Birgeneau’s assistant Melanie Waring Chapman announced that “the U of T portion of [Mbeki’s] trip had been cancelled.” The dejected crowd of students, professors, and politicians voiced their disappointment as they milled about the Great Hall’s stone entranceway.

“I’ve been here since eight o’clock,” said Dr. Almasi, a professor of Swahili in U of T’s African Studies program, “I’m very disappointed. I told all of my students to come today to listen to the President…he’s very controversial.”

Mbeki, president of South Africa since 1999, is notorious in the international community for his alternative views on HIV/AIDS. Until late last year, Mbeki held that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) could not be scientifically proven to cause AIDS. He has since retracted that statement, and allowed the use of effective anti-retroviral AIDS drugs in South Africa.

Looking to avoid further controversy, the focus of Mbeki’s cancelled speech was NEPAD, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. Launched in 2001, NEPAD is billed as a “vision and strategic framework for Africa’s renewal.” By uniting Africa, which is very large and diverse, the partnership hopes to address some of the current challenges facing the continent. Namely poverty, disease, and good governance.

Mbeki’s visit to Canada is rumoured to include an effort to drum up Western and corporate support for NEPAD initiatives, as well as emphasize Africa’s marginalization in the global marketplace.

Wherever Mbeki goes, however, debate is sure to follow. In Mbeki’s absence, others in attendance took aim at NEPAD. “The attempt to unify Africa is a noble idea,” says Meyer Brownstone, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at U of T, but “NEPAD has its deficiencies. Its emphasis on private investment under WTO (World Trade Organization) rules, its failure to engage civil society, and its neglect of women’s issues,” to name a few.

NEPAD does list the empowerment of women as one of its primary objectives, but Brownstone is convinced that “NEPAD, as it is presently defined, is a flawed vehicle.”

A former chair of OxFam Canada, Brownstone first met Mbeki in 1994 on the eve of South Africa’s first democratic, non-apartheid elections. From that April 27 onwards, the African National Congress (ANC) has governed the country, first by Nelson Mandela, and then by Mbeki. South Africa has since struggled to deal with the crippling effects of poverty and HIV/AIDS.

Change is slow in coming to the southern African nation. “I am concerned about the lack of an adequate land reform program,” explains Brownstone, “I am concerned about excessive privatization. I had been concerned about the approach to HIV/AIDS, until recently.”

Mbeki’s arrival in Canada this week is auspicious, and could signal good things for the near future. On Tuesday, Canada and South Africa signed a joint declaration of intent to strengthen bilateral co-operation. Today, Canada’s House of Commons is supposed to table a new bill to help provide cheaper, generic drugs to poor countries ravaged by AIDS. If the bill is passed, it will allow countries like South Africa to override patent laws and roll out inexpensive medicines to an impoverished population. However, with days left before Parliament is likely prorogued, it could be months before the new legislation becomes law.

President Thabo Mbeki did arrive in Toronto yesterday afternoon in time for a reception with Ontario Lieutenant-Governor James Bartleman.