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 South Africa |  Sri Lanka |
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South Africa – Sri Lanka relations refers to thecurrent and historical relations betweenSouth Africa andSri Lanka. The Government of South Africa established its resident diplomatic mission inColombo in September 2007.[1] HESirisena Amarasekara is the current Sri Lankan High Commissioner to South Africa while HE Ms RP Marks is the current South African High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. Both countries are members of theCommonwealth of Nations.
Both countries ofSouth Africa and Sri Lanka were part of the Dutch and British Empires. Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) was a Dutch colony from 1658 - 1796 and a British colony from 1815 - 1948 whileSouth Africa (mainly theDutch Cape colony) was a Dutch colony from 1652 - 1806 and a British colony (including other parts ofSouth Africa) from 1806 - 1910. The relations of bothSouth Africa andCeylon would have happened during the two periods of colonialism.[citation needed][2]
During the Dutch colonial period in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch brought slaves fromCeylon. The slaves got there from voyages sponsored by theDutch East India Company (VOC) where they sent slave ships from the Cape which their 'return' fleet sailed from Ceylon, theDutch East Indies and back to the Netherlands and those fleets would stop at the Cape on their way home. The Ceylonese who went on these fleets came as personal slaves. In the early 18th century, majority of the slaves in the Cape were from India andCeylon.[3] The slaves mixed in with the population and the descendants could be seen with theCape Malays andCape Coloured.
Sri Lanka established diplomatic relations on 12 September 1994 following the end ofApartheid and the election ofNelson Mandela to the new Government ofSouth Africa of its postApartheid period.[4]
The President of South Africa,Jacob Zuma, visited Sri Lanka to participate in theCommonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2013 inColombo. The President of Sri LankaMahinda Rajapaksa, visited South Africa in December 2013 to participate in the funeral of former President of South AfricaNelson Mandela.
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