McGuinness pays tribute to ANC's role in NI

Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness ended a two-and-a-half-day visit to South Africa by paying tribute to the role of the African National Congress government in encouraging parties in Northern Ireland.

Many South Africans are “surprised” by the British government’s attempts to penalise Sinn Féin over paramilitary activity, Mr McGuinness claimed today.

At the end of his visit, where he attended the inauguration of President Thabo Mbeki and 10th anniversary celebrations of the ending of apartheid, the Sinn Fein MP paid tribute to the role of the African National Congress government in encouraging parties in Northern Ireland.

But the Mid Ulster MP said he had also raised concerns about the peace process during meetings with President Mbeki and Cyril Ramaphosa, a former international inspector of IRA arms dumps.

With Sinn Féin still smarting from the fine imposed on it following the first report on paramilitarism by the Independent Monitoring Commission, Mr McGuinness said: “The links between South Africa and Ireland are strong, as indeed are the links between the ANC and the Sinn Féin leadership.

“President Mbeki maintains a close interest in the Irish peace process as well as close links to the British government and the ANC are very keen to hear where we are at.

“They are very conscious of our concerns – the need for a greater sense of urgency, the need for the British and Irish governments to honour commitments made in the Agreement and since then.

“We told them the Independent Monitoring Commission has been set up outside the terms of the Agreement and about the ludicrous situation where unelected people like Lord Alderdice and friends of securocrats can, on the basis of information funnelled through them by securocrats, get a British minister to take sanctions against our party, the biggest pro-Agreement party at Stormont.

“Many people in South Africa are surprised by that and are also aware of the disenfranchisement of over 200,000 people through draconian measures.

“That strikes a very deep chord with people in South Africa who were denied the vote for many, many years until freedom came. They are very conscious of the measures taken by the British government in that regard.”

Republicans have been angered by last week’s IMC report which backed police chief Hugh Orde’s claim that the Provisional IRA was responsible for the beating and attempted abduction of Belfast republican Bobby Tohill in February.

That anger was further fuelled by the commission’s threat to publicly identify senior members of Sinn Féin in leadership roles in the IRA if paramilitary activity continues.

The loyalist Progressive Unionist Party has also denounced the IMC following the decision to fine it over Ulster Volunteer Force activity.

The IMC comprises former Northern Ireland Assembly Speaker John Alderdice, ex-US Central Intelligence Agency deputy director Richard Kerr, John Grieve, who was the former head of the Metropolitan Police’s anti-terrorist squad, and retired Irish civil servant Joe Brosnan.

Mr McGuinness was joined on his South Africa visit by former IRA hunger striker turned Sinn Féin activist Raymond McCartney.

They met ANC member and former death row inmate Robert McBride, who is now the chief of the East Rand municipality’s Metro Police.

The Mid Ulster MP said Northern Ireland had a lot to learn from people like Mr McBride about transforming policing.

“Raymond and I have been staying with Robert McBride and have taken the opportunity to see what lessons can be learnt,” he said.

“We are very much aware of the need to get policing right and the considerable obstacles that still have to be overcome on this crucial issue.

“Lessons can also be learnt politically from this country. Anyone who attended the inauguration yesterday will tell you how remarkably at ease people in South Africa from all backgrounds are with each other and how confident they are about the future.

“The inclusive nature of politics in this country is a guiding light for all of us.”

The Sinn Féin delegation also held one-hour talks with a representative from the Palestinian National Authority on the situation in the Middle East.