GTF representative pays last respects to Mandela

 Sunday, 15 December 2013 

Director and Spokesperson of Global Tamil Forum (GTF), Suren Surendiran has visited South Africa to pay his last respects to the late former President Nelson Mandela.

Surendiran accompanied by Sally Padayachie (late Minister Padayachie’s wife) has paid his last respects to the dead South African leader at the Union Building in Pretoria.

The GTF representative travelled to South Africa on the 12th to the African National Congress Head Quarters (Chief Albert Luthuli House) in the centre of Johannesburg, South Africa and had signed the Book of Condolences on behalf of the GTF.

While in South Africa, Surendiran has met with Comrade Obed Bopela Deputy Minister in The Presidency: Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation and Chairman of ANC’s International Relations Division.

Bopela had attended both meetings with the TNA and President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo as part of the senior delegation which accompanied President Jacob Zuma to Sri Lanka for CHOGM in November.

Surendiran says that Bopela has given him some additional insights of those meetings in Colombo and the current thinking of the South African government on the issues in Sri Lanka.

Bopela had also invited the GTF Director to officially represent the Tamil people at the ANC’s official funeral event on Saturday at the Waterkloof Air Force base in Pretoria.

The event will be attended by President Zuma, former President Thabo Mbeki and the entire members of the