Ireland–South Africa relations as premature. The Irish embassy opened in Pretoria in 1994. From the early 1960s Ireland vehemently opposed apartheid in South Africa. South African Nelson Mandela, then a dissident, later president, was awarded the Freedom of the City of Dublin in 1988 while a political prisoner; he collected the award upon his release in 1990. Diplomatic ties between the two countries were established in 1994. In November 2003, Brian Cowen, while touring Africa as Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, promised South African President Thabo Mbeki that Ireland would highlight African problems when it ascended to the Council Presidency of the European
Surfing in South Africa Surfing in South Africa Surfing in South Africa began in Durban in the 1940s. By 1965 the South African Surfing Association was formed. In recent years surfing associations have tried to encourage more black South Africans to take up surfing. This beach is the home of surfing in South Africa and arguably the oldest surfing town in Africa. Let alone South Africa. Heather Price is considered to be the first ever person recorded to stand-up surf with a photo appearing in a local newspaper in 1919. The modern surfing movement in South Africa was in essence founded by a women,