President Mbeki has offered ?strong political support? to Bolivia?s controversial socialist President-elect Evo Morales, the Bolivian said after meeting Mbeki at the Union Buildings on Wednesday. As a result, South Africa (SA) and Bolivia would be establishing formal bilateral relations. Morales, the first indigenous person to be elected president in South America, describes himself as ?America?s nightmare? because of his plans after his inauguration on January 22 to nationalise Bolivia?s natural gas industry and to overturn the neo-liberal economic model favoured by the US.

Morales rose through the ranks of peasant and workers? movements to shock South America by winning the elections in December. He is meeting a wide range of SA political and civil society leaders, mainly to learn from SA?s experience of nation building, reconciliation and political transformation. Morales said after meeting Mbeki: ?I feel we have strong political support from a very important country.?

Asked if Mbeki supported his plans for nationalising the gas industry and restructuring the economy to restore control to the indigenous people, he said he had only asked for advice on political transformation. ?That?s all we talked about for the time being. We did not talk about the natural gas industry. Once we have established formal bilateral relations we will see what other areas we can work on, such as economic relations.?

Learning about SA?s own constituent assembly was also one of the main aims of his visit. A source close to the visit said that Morales?s gas policy might not be as radical as it first sounded. He noted that in a meeting with outgoing Johnnic chairman and mining magnate Cyril Ramaphosa. On Wednesday, Ramaphosa had explained to Morales the SA government?s policy of the state assuming ownership of mineral resources so they could be licensed to private business. ?He seemed to have no problem with that,? the source said. Morales met former President FW de Klerk and former Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu yesterday, before completing his international tour in Brazil.