President Thabo Mbeki will join African leaders and other prominent international figures in celebrating Ghana's 50th Independence celebrations this week.
Supported by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, President Mbeki is paying a working visit to Benin on Monday and will proceed to Ghana on Tuesday to attend the celebrations of sub-Saharan Africa's oldest independent state.
"The independence of Ghana under the able leadership of the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah gave impetus to liberation movements across the continent in efforts to rid Africa of the scourge of racism, colonialism and oppression," the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
In this regard, it is expected Presidents of Botswana, Nigeria, Liberia, Benin, Chairperson of the AU Commission among others including the Duke of Kent will attend the celebrations.
Ghana's President John Agyekum Kufuor, is current chairman of the African Union (AU). The country ascended to this position at January's AU Heads of State Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Last week, President Kufuor said he would give every necessary support to help consolidate peace in Burundi and stabilise the Great Lakes region, as part of his duties as AU chair.
Ghana was formed from the merger of the British colony of the Gold Coast and the Togoland trust territory, in 1957, becoming the first sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to gain its independence.
A long series of coups resulted in the suspension of the constitution in 1981 and a ban on political parties.
A new constitution, restoring multiparty politics, was approved in 1992.
Jerry Rawlings, who has been in South Africa attending the Africa Forum on Fighting Corruption, won presidential elections in Ghana in 1992 and 1996. He was constitutionally prevented from running for a third term in 2000.
President Kufuor who defeated former Vice President John Atta-Mills in a free and fair election, succeeded Lt Rawlings.
Ghana is located in western Africa, bordering the Gulf of Guinea, between the Ivory Coast and Togo.
The country is well endowed with natural resources and has roughly twice the per capita output of the poorest countries in West Africa.
Even so, it remains heavily dependent on international financial and technical assistance.
Gold, timber, and cocoa production are major sources of foreign exchange.
The domestic economy continues to revolve around subsistence agriculture, which accounts for 34 percent of GDP and employs 60 percent of the work force, mainly small landholders
In Benin, President Mbeki supported by Minister Dlamini Zuma, will hold bilateral political and economic discussions with his counterpart President Yayi Thomas Boni in Cotonou.
In this regard, the two Presidents are expected to discuss among others:
* Closer co-operation between the two countries
* Finalise draft agreements on Agriculture, Health, Trade and Investments, Culture, Tourism as well as
* Minerals and Energy and Expansion of Trade.
President Mbeki and Minister Dlamini Zuma are expected to return to South Africa on Wednesday.
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