July 1 - U.S. President Barack Obama leaves South Africa aboard Air Force One, bound for Tanzania. Rough Cut (no reporter narration)
ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday (July 1) left Cape Town aboard presidential jet Air Force One, bound for Tanzania. Obama was in South Africa on the second leg of a three-nation Africa trip including Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. The U.S. leader and his family visited the bleak former prison of Robben Island to pay tribute to ex-inmate and former president Nelson Mandela, now critically ill in hospital. The president, the first African-American U.S. head of state, said Mandela's struggle against apartheid paved the way for freedom and opportunity well beyond South Africa's borders. In Cape Town, the president announced a $7 billion U.S. initiative to double access to electric power on a continent where only one in three people have electricity. This would include the renewal of an agreement to cut tariffs on African exports to the United States. While in Cape Town, Obama also visited a health centre to highlight U.S. efforts to combat HIV/AIDS on the continent. During that visit, another anti-apartheid veteran, retired Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu, told Obama that Africans felt an affinity with him and had high expectations of him.