Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Today Wen Jiabao is set to arrive in South Africa from Angola in what is the first visit of a Chinese premier in 50 years. A meeting with the President Thabo Mbeki is scheduled to discuss, among other things, agreements on civil nuclear energy and textiles.

Tseliso Magubela, the chief director of nuclear energy within the department of Mineral and Energy Affairs, said the agreement included mining of uranium in South Africa and joint development of nuclear reactors, plus the exchange of technical personnel.

On the agenda is also an agreement on textiles, a sector in which China's products have caused the loss of tens of thousands of jobs in the country. At the beginning of the month, Beijing said it would limit exportation to the country, as it has already done with the United States and the European Union.

The country has been invaded by Chinese merchandise. In 2004, South Africa exported products worth around 801 million US dollars to China, while importing merchandise worth triple that amount. Two firms plan to introduce Chinese cars at reduced prices.

And yet South African firms invest 400 million dollars in China as opposed to only 130 million injected into the country by 80 Chinese firms, said Aziz Pahad, the Foreign Affairs Minister.

"There's no question that for upper classes, [trade with China] is a boon," said Neva Seidman Makgetla, an economist for the Congress of South African Trade Unions. "The problem is that lower-class South Africans need work."

In Angola, Wen met President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Premier Fernando da Piedade Dia dos Santos, who welcomed him at the airport. Angola is Africa's second largest producer of oil after Nigeria, and is China's main supplier together with Saudi Arabia. In March, Angola, according to the analyst Petromatrix, supplied China with 2.61 million tons of crude oil compared with 2.43 of Saudi Arabia, which however exported 2.24 million in April compared to "only" 1.77 from Luanda. In 2004, the volume of trade reached seven billion US dollars. After 27 years of civil war, Angola attained peace in 2002: the country badly needs reconstruction and seeks funding to build roads, bridges and schools. China's Export and Import Bank has extended an oil-backed loan of two billion dollars. For local media, the country "is looking to the East".

Minister Luis da Mota Liza said: "For us, reconstruction is very important."

But experts say it is leaders who largely reap benefits from oil while the rest of the population languishes in poverty: there are food shortages even in the capital, Luanda, and families must live off a few litres of water per day. In the suburb of Cambamba Dois, people live in shacks made of corrugated iron and rags, which must keep out the rain and wind. There are no signs of aid forthcoming from the government. A recent cholera epidemic killed 1,200 people.

Human rights activists say Chinese aid has allowed Luanda to refuse a loan from the International Monetary Fund, which called for guarantees about use of the money. China, however, does not take heed of where its funds end up, since – it says – it follows a policy of "non interference" in the internal policies of other states. Meanwhile, in Angola, the Chinese oil company Sinopec has wound up important contracts: last week, it acquired stakes in exploration in three areas believed to have reserves for 3.2 million barrels. Already in 2006, the firm clinched a three-million-dollar contract to build a new refinery in Lobito which will produce 240,000 barrels of oil per day, and it has important stakes in exploration in other oil-rich areas.

On 19 June, Wen was in the Republic of Congo, rich in copper and also in oil, and he met Denis Sassou, President of the nation and of the African Union.