SO IT looks like the Dalai Lama is not going to be given a visa to come to South Africa - again.

South Africa rejected the Dalai Lama's last application when Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and former presidents Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk invited him to a 2010 peace conference.

The Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel peace laureate was invited by Tutu - another peace prize recipient - to attend his 80th birthday celebrations in Cape Town on October 7.

It is very clear the man who was once embraced as a beacon of peace in South Africa when apartheid ended has become a diplomatic headache for the government. It is all very well to argue, as some have, that our economic links to China should trump any friendship with the Dalai Lama, but the fact is, again just like the peace conference, this visit would not have been a political issue.

It also does not fit the category of government relations because it is a personal visit to celebrate a friend's 80th birthday. The South African government does not have to meet him.

Nelson Mandela made it very clear when he was president that South Africa would choose her own friends and would not bow to pressure from any foreign influence.

If our economic partners are so fickle as to sever ties because a man in a robe was allowed in, then we must find new friends.

Our naiveté is also breathtaking. The biggest economy in the world is the United States and, despite its trade relations with China, the country hosted the Dalai Lama. President Barack Obama met him despite Chinese threats and blackmail.

In that meeting, Obama made it clear to him that a healthy US-China relationship was important and that the US government did not support any separatist movements.

Guess what? The Chinese sulked but they did not disinvest because they too want to make money and they are cunning enough to realise that disinvesting over this matter would not do them any good.

So why are we giving in to their blackmail?

Whether individuals agree with the Dalai Lama or not, the fact is he is a widely celebrated leader who received a Nobel prize.

He is despised by China because even though he has stated that he does not want Tibetan independence, but is rather asking for autonomous rule that would allow his people to maintain their culture, language and religion under China's rule, the Chinese government does not buy into this concept.

The abortive 1959 uprisings further hardened China's stance. Regardless of where we stand on this matter, South Africa has hosted leaders from a wide spectrum and whose views were not always in keeping with ours.

Nobody is asking the Zuma administration to dine with the Tibetan leader. We know the government does not have the stomach for that. But to prevent him from visiting his friends and getting involved in other nongovernmental initiatives is ridiculous.

After three years of being afforded the opportunity to write a column for this great newspaper, today, is my last instalment. But I am glad that I will still be with the Avusa family.

Most of my writing has been on current affairs and socio-economic issues, but sometimes, when the world got too noisy and unbearable, I was given the latitude to be frivolous and light-hearted. The trust that the various editors of this newspaper had in me is overwhelming.

I beg your indulgence to allow me to share what Sowetan has meant to me. This newspaper is an institution whose reach stretches far beyond the world famous and historic township after which it is named.

Thank you Sowetan for making sure that the majority of black people in South Africa had a voice at a time when the forces of darkness were intent on silencing them.

In 1981, the mission was clear. That was to be a liberation struggle newspaper and this you did with great aplomb.

Through these pages, I tapped into the minds of great thinkers and community leaders.

The space that the print media offers for debate should never be under-estimated because to know that we all have the freedom to exchange ideas, disagree and challenge each other, is a gift.