Foreign Affairs of South Africa, Ms Sue Van Der Merwe
29 May 2006
Deputy Chairperson
Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Honourable Members
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Your Excellencies
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen:
Earlier this year, speaking at the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the
New Constitution, President Mbeki pointed to the growing importance of
internationalism. He said:
"As we mark the 10th Anniversary of the adoption of our Constitution, we
must, once again, recall and pay tribute to the sustained act of solidarity by
the people of Africa and the world, that made a decisive contribution to the
victory we celebrate today.
That act of solidarity underlined the responsibility of liberated South
Africa to position it among the forces in Africa and the world which work
consistently, regardless of the scale and complexity of the challenge, to help
build a better and just world order which respects and promotes the rights of
all nations."
Indeed, as a result of that act of solidarity, we have made significant
progress as a country and as a nation, and in our efforts in the international
arena, we are working hard to ensure that tomorrow will surely be a better and
brighter day than today, especially for the people of Africa and of the
developing world.
Much has happened since we last addressed this house on the occasion of our
budget vote in April last year. On that occasion, we spoke of our foreign
policy perspective on what was described by the President then as a "confluence
of encouraging possibilities". Galvanised by such optimism, we set about the
task of implementing our foreign policy agenda with greater vigour. The
Minister has already articulated many of our achievements during this
period.
We remain convinced that only through constructive dialogue we will be able
to bring about the kind of world we envisage. Therefore, we remain committed to
promoting our domestic interests abroad, through dialogue and engagement.
Dialogue has always been our strength and we shall not give in to the
temptation to use our relative strength in other areas to pursue narrow
self-interests.
Our agenda is to promote our interests through dialogue, through conflict
resolution and negotiations, through post conflict reconstruction and through a
permanent peace reinforced with sustained economic and social development.
It remains our belief that a better world can only come about through
improving the quality of life of the entire world's people. In this regard, we
support the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, bringing an end to
poverty in particular and nurturing the conditions for economic
development.
South Africa has noted with concern that current projections indicate that
the Millennium Development Goals as the Minister has already said, will not be
reached, especially by many African countries, partly because there are
inadequate resources available.
Even if the promised increase in Overseas Development Assistance by a number
of developed countries is realised, this will not be enough to bridge the
funding gap by the 2015 target date.
South Africa has therefore decided to join a group of countries who are
looking at rising additional funding from innovative sources in order to give
impetus to achieving these goals.
The President of France hosted a meeting of these countries in Paris in
March this year and the Leading Group on Solidarity Funding was launched. The
Minister of Foreign Affairs attended and announced that South Africa would be
joining the Group. France is providing a secretariat for the Leading Group,
which will be based in Paris, while Brazil is chairing the group for the first
six months.
In addition, South Africa is supporting a United Kingdom (UK) initiative led
by the UK's Finance Minister, Gordon Brown, called the International Financing
Facility (IFF). A pilot project for funding immunisation in developing
countries has already been launched.
The scope of South Africa's relations has deepened continuously in both the
context of high-level political consultations and growth in terms of economic
relations and development co-operation. The establishment of a constructive
North-South dialogue is also of particular importance to South Africa.
In this regard, South Africa's relations with the European Union (EU) have
improved and expanded significantly in recent years. The EU remains South
Africa's largest trading partner, main source of Foreign Direct Investment,
(FDI) and tourism as well as the world's leading provider of development
assistance.
The SA-EU Trade, Development and Co-operation Agreement (TDCA) that governs
South Africa's relations with the European Union (EU) is currently under its
first five year review.
Multilateral interaction with the EU is taking place on issues such as
economic globalisation, market access, debt relief, reform of the UN Security
Council, security and peace issues, disarmament and human rights.
Africa-EU relations are steadily increasing. At a multilateral level, the EU
co-operates with African countries through the ACP (African Caribbean Pacific
grouping of countries) and through the African Union (AU).
In December last year, the Council of the European Union adopted its EU
Strategy for Africa, entitled "The EU and Africa: Towards a Strategic
Partnership". The Strategy aims to facilitate closer co-operation between the
African continent and the EU, and builds on the Cairo Summit Declaration aimed
at enhancing political dialogue between the EU and Africa and support towards
African initiatives aimed at socio-economic development as well as the holding
of a second EU-Africa Summit.
In the last year we also continued to advance our positions through
participation in African Group meetings at the UN Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) and as a G20 member in
the WTO. These interactions play an important role in promoting South-South
co-operation for increased market access, trade and investment amongst
developing countries. We also increased our efforts to strengthen relations
with all members of the G77 and China. Since our assumption of that portfolio
we have actively used our chairpersonship of the G77 and China as a platform to
advance the agenda of the South.
We also continued to promote our development agenda through engagement with
our partners in the North including the G8, Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD), World Economic Forum (WEF) and other
relevant North-South fora. In this regard, a lot of effort was put in
preparation for our participation in the Group of Eight plus five (G-8 +5) and
the African Partnership Forum (APF).
We will use those strengths and advantages that we enjoy in certain areas
for the greater benefit of all our partners, particularly countries on the
continent. For us, this forward movement will see increased levels of economic
diplomacy closely supported by political diplomacy. We will continue to use the
political goodwill that we enjoy to leverage more foreign trade, external
investments, financial flows, aid, bilateral and multilateral economic
negotiations, tourism promotion and technology exchanges. In collaboration with
all concerned domestic partners, we will continue to promote brand South Africa
and contribute to building our country's image abroad.
We will also continue to engage other partners such as the International
Marketing Council on creating a positive and united image and the South African
Tourism in marketing our country.
Already in some of our missions, this work already happens through the
posting of skilled personnel or ad hoc support.
Deputy Chairperson, Honourable members,
During this financial year, we will continue to develop more economic
analysis capability. Our Policy, Research and Analysis Unit is providing
support in this regard to ensure that we develop the necessary capacity to
perform this function. This will enable our diplomats to gain more insight
about the principal elements of the economies of the host countries and how we
can use this knowledge to effectively implement the economic agreements we
sign.
The growing demand of our foreign policy has also meant that as a
department, we continue to assess whether our structures are functioning
effectively and optimally, and are capable of meeting the needs of the present.
As the Minister has already mentioned, the finalisation of our building where
we can have everybody under one roof will go a long way towards assisting in
achieving our objectives. We have already seen the concept designs and are very
excited about these.
A skills audit has been completed assessing skill challenges that we need to
enhance within our own environment in line with our foreign policy objectives.
As such, we have rolled out a series of training programmes aimed at empowering
our employees to better address the needs of the Department.
Great effort has been made to reposition the Foreign Service Institute (FSI)
in order to ensure that our training is in line with international benchmarking
standards and comparable with similar training institutes worldwide. This
includes leadership programmes for our managers. The training of foreign
languages, particularly the French language, remains a priority.
Not only are we training our own officials, but the FSI has also been active
in supporting the training of diplomats from Sudan and the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC).
I am pleased to inform this House that in this year in which we commemorate
the 50th anniversary of the women's march to Pretoria, the department has been
progressively promoting the interests of women to reach gender parity within
the organisation. The representation of women has increased at all levels. It
is important for me to mention that we have made great progress particularly at
senior and middle management levels.
Madame Speaker
Part of our responsibility is towards the safety of our citizens wherever in
the world they may be, and to continue to safeguard those of our citizens who
may live abroad. Our intention is to have greater interactions with our
citizens so as to ensure their well-being.
As we strive to meet the growing challenges and expectations that face all
countries and governments following upon the recent spate of natural disasters
like the tsunami, earthquakes, and so forth, we would like to announce that we
are at present finalising highly improved, technologically advanced and more
people-friendly consular services for all South Africans that travel, work,
study and live abroad.
These include:
* the Development of a unique Emergency Management System - the system will
allow us to better manage our ability to provide support to our citizens
following a catastrophe abroad
* Registration of South African citizens Abroad (ROSA).
This system will allow our citizens to register with the department when
they travel outside our borders. In this way, we will have a more accurate
estimate of how many of our citizens are abroad and where they may be. This
will be most helpful during times of emergency making it easier to contact our
people.
As we expand our global reach with the view to promoting political
relations, rendering consular services and building trade relations, I am
pleased to announce the opening of the missions in the following cities during
the 2006/07 financial year: Bucharest, Rumania; Port of Spain, Trinidad and
Tobago; Ougoadougo, Burkina Faso; and Cotonou, Benin.
Honourable Members,
When Pixley ka Seme, former President of the ANC declared in 1906 "I am an
African", his statement was a profound act of intra-African solidarity as he
addressed not only the plight of South Africa, but also of the entire African
Continent.
Our economic diplomacy reinforces our political diplomacy as we continue, in
the words of Seme, to build "a new life embracing the diverse phases of a
higher, complex existence".
Today we walk along the road of multilateralism in principle, and
international solidarity in action, and are part of a continental struggle for
social and economic advancement.
As South Africa, we do not seek to promote our national interests alone, but
as our history of struggle and building the foundations of a new democracy has
taught us - our internationalism strengthens our patriotism.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
29 May 2006
Source: SAPA
