South Africa's Minister of Foreign Affairs (MFA), Naledi Pandor, has asked her Portuguese counterpart to "intercede with" TAP to "create a direct route to South Africa".

"One of the requests I made to my colleague João Gomes Cravinho was to intercede with the leadership of TAP to create a direct route between Portugal and South Africa, to boost tourism on both sides and ensure that the sector, which has been badly affected by the pandemic, recovers," said Pandor at the end of a meeting with the Portuguese MFA in Lisbon.

The meeting between the two leaders served to "jointly analyze bilateral relations, which are very good, and allowed us to identify several areas in which collaboration and joint work can be intensified, such as the economy, renewable energies, agriculture and the oceans," said Minister João Gomes Cravinho.

The South African minister also highlighted the blue economy and energy as priority areas, guaranteeing that "any person or company with energy solutions is welcome", implicitly referring to the frequent power cuts affecting South Africa and hampering economic growth and industrial production.

Asked for more details about the visit of the President of the Republic to her country, as part of the celebrations for the Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities, Naledi Pandor said that it would be "a great celebration", but declined to give further details.