The government has since refused to bow to pressure to reverse its decision denying. This has caused uproar in civil society structures and embarrassed the conference organizers ‘the Premier Soccer League (PSL)’ which invited him, as well as Nobel laureates Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and former president FW de Klerk. Tutu and De Klerk have expressed their dismay and threatened not to attend the event if the government does not review its decision.

“If His Holiness’s visa is refused, then I won’t take part in the coming 2010 World Cup-related peace conference. I will condemn government’s behaviour as disgraceful, in line with our country’s abysmal record at the United Nations Security Council, a total betrayal of our struggle history,” Tutu told the Sunday Tribune.

The opposition and civil society questioned the government’s motives after it transpired that it was the local soccer body, the PSL, and not the Fifa 2010 local organizing committee (LOC) on which the government is represented that invited the Dalai Lama.
LOC spokesman Rich Mkhondo confirmed that the committee was not responsible for organizing the conference.

Business Day understands that the government’s rationale for denying the spiritual leader a visa was that it did not want to jeopardise relations with China.

A government official has confirmed this, saying that after the government became aware of the invitation to the Dalai Lama it became concerned that this could negatively affect diplomatic and economic relations. “The Chinese government would not have been happy had we let him come. We would not do anything to upset the relationship we have with China,” the official said.

Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa maintained that the Dalai Lama had not received an invitation to come to the country. “As far as government is concerned, no invitation was extended to the Dalai Lama to visit SA; therefore the question of the visas doesn’t exist.”

However, the PSL confirmed that the invitation had been officially issued and that the Dalai Lama had ‘graciously’ agreed to participate.

PSL CEO Kjetil Siem said the PSL had no reason to consult the government on who was invited to the conference. “We are not in politics ... a laureate is a laureate, from whichever country they come from,” said Siem.

SA is one of China’s key trading partners in Africa, accounting for 20.8% of China’s trade with the continent. China’s foreign direct investment in SA is about R60bn; while SA’s foreign direct investment in China is R20bn.

Donovan Roebert, founder of the South African Friends of Tibet, said the conference had become a sham and “we are likely to see a postponement if this issue is not resolved soonest.”