Unpopular decision faces growing opposition

RIGHTS groups, academics, opposition parties and newspapers in South Africa had all pressed their government to grant the Dalai Lama a visa.

In a statement last week, Loyisa Nongxa, vice-chancellor of Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, said instead of trying to “silence” the Dalai Lama, South Africa should “welcome the opportunity and allow all voices to be heard in our democracy – a right for which we fought.”

The Sunday Times of Johannesburg said: “The government has dithered for weeks over the Tibetan spiritual leader’s visa application, leading to suspicion Pretoria has once again been put under immense pressure by China not to allow the visit.”

The Dalai Lama went to South Africa in 1996 to visit president Nelson Mandela who told Beijing it was Pretoria’s right to decide who visited.

South Africa exports about £3.6 billion a year in minerals to China and has been increasingly a destination for Chinese investment.