Dear friends and fellow South Africans,
Due to an unreasonable delay on the part of the South African Government in processing the visa application of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader is unable to visit South Africa. This is a terrible disappointment.
We had hoped to welcome the Nobel Laureate to Cape Town on Thursday.
As a long time friend of the Dalai Lama, I had invited him to meet with me for a moment of reflection before we attended the celebration of Archbishop Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday.
I last met with the Dalai Lama in Rome in November 2009, when I attended the 5th World Parliamentarians Convention on Tibet. I came under intense pressure not to attend that Convention, after having attended the 4th Convention in Edinburgh in 2005, where I had also spent time with the Dalai Lama.
Our meeting in Rome was personally edifying, for it came just months after the South African Government barred the Dalai Lama from entering our country in March 2009, in violation of our laws and constitutional principles. This happened in the same week he was expected to arrive.