South Africa

Southern African country/Official visit (28 and 29 February 2008). State Dinner in honour of President Jacob Zuma (2 March 2011)

Following a visit to Chad, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy traveled to South Africa. In Cape Town, while the French President met his counterpart Thabo Mbeki, she visited a cooperative run by the NGO Township Partners. At Khayelitsha, this fair trade plant founded by a Frenchwoman (Nicole Andrée Marie Iresh) employs fifty women who create accessories with recovered materials. They earn €250 per month. Carla Bruni left with a burlap bag with her picture on it. Friday 29, in Johannesburg, after a meeting with Nelson Mandela, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy confided to the press: “I want to get involved in humanitarian work. I still have the same convictions, even if I am not particularly involved in politics”, she continued. The French Presidential couple had just visited Robben Island, where South Africa’s first black president (elected in 1994) was imprisoned for eighteen years. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy opened his cell with a replica of the key. “No need to wait for Nicolas Sarkozy’s next visit to come back and see us”, Mandela’s successor Thabo Mbeki said as he was leaving. In 2009, Jacob Zuma took over the Presidency of the Republic. He was received at a State Dinner at the Élysée Palace on 2 March, 2011.