S van der Merwe: Foreign Affairs Dept Budget Vote 2007/08

29 May 2007

Madam Speaker
Ministers and Deputy Ministers
Honourable members
Your Excellencies, Ambassadors and High Commissioners present
Members of the diplomatic corps
Distinguished guests

"Government can build diplomatic relations and sign trade and investment
agreements with other countries. It can do all that is possible to attract
investment and promote the image of the country. But it requires the
co-operation of business, workers and all South Africans to take advantage of
these opportunities, to promote the country's image, and to provide good
service to investors, tourists and others.

This is the contract that we should all enter into as South Africans � each
of us with one another: government and each citizen, community and sector of
society � together to build a better South Africa."

This is a quotation from the 2004 African National Congress (ANC) election
manifesto, and is what we committed ourselves to for this government.

For our work in the international arena is as important to those ordinary
South Africans whose needs are for decent housing, for clean water and proper
sanitation. Our work, in a different way, focuses on these same issues towards
the betterment of the lives of our people.

These domestic imperatives are what drive our foreign policy and it is
important that our international work supports these South African challenges
and complements the work of other government departments.

While our democracy is built on a constitutional dispensation underpinned by
principles and where people rights are guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, we
also recognise that a political settlement without an enduring contract among
the economic role-players for growth and development would not be sustainable
in the long term. And, as this is true for South Africa, it is also true for
our region and our continent.

We have spoken increasingly over the past three years of the growing
interface between our political and economic diplomacy with the view to serving
our domestic interests. Over the past few years of our democracy, recognisable
characteristics of our national interests have emerged that we have actively
promoted through our foreign policy agenda and which represent the common will
and aspirations of our people.

In 1997 then Deputy President Thabo Mbeki said in this house:

"The success of our common project to remake South Africa as a stable,
non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous democracy depends in good measure on the
existence of an international community, similarly defined. Among other things,
this places on us the obligation to contribute to the common African
continental effort, at last to achieve an African Renaissance, including the
establishment of stable democracies, respect for human rights, an end to
violent conflicts and a better life for all the peoples of Africa."

"Our first step towards our own entry into that {African} century must
consist in our capacity together to transform our own country into a place
which all our people would be proud to call home."

In other words, while we must transform our own country into a place which
all our people would be proud to call home, we recognise that Africa is also
our home and our efforts must support the transformation of this continent
too.

As a nation we have come a long way towards reaching these objectives, but
great challenges remain.

We need:

* to further strengthen our democracy for a cohesive society that shares and
aspires for the same values
* to ensure shared economic growth and development for the betterment of the
lives of all South Africans
* to develop a sense of national pride based on a shared vision about the kind
of society we wish to see.

Towards this end government has implemented a series of co-ordinated and
incremental economic growth and development policies and strategies to
consolidate our democracy. While these initiatives have borne very positive
results over the past thirteen years, we have also recognised that there still
remain large pockets of poverty in our country. Our international work has an
important role in addressing these challenges.

In the Department of Foreign Affairs our role is outward looking, seeking to
unlock potential and create opportunities through our foreign relations, for
our people and our continent that would otherwise not exist. Our mandate as the
Department of Foreign Affairs therefore is to ensure that we conduct our
foreign policy in such a manner that we give expression to the wishes and
aspirations of our people to protect and promote our domestic objectives
through a principled foreign policy for which we can be held accountable; and
we seek nothing less for the peoples of the continent of Africa.

South Africa's interactions with the international community must therefore,
continue to express the South African peoples' collective values and
principles. Our work must not simply react to global trends but also influence
the direction of key global processes to the benefit of our people.

The Minister has described the challenges that we face in the United Nations
Security Council, of the differences between our aspirations and of those that
adopt a different approach, who do not see the future world as we do.

The critical challenge for any country today is the management of these
tensions between domestic priorities and global demands. As we engage in
political relationships, the dynamics between domestic priorities and global
demands are starting to take an increasingly (socio) economic character.

Our ever-expanding foreign policy agenda therefore increasingly challenges
the notion that a nation's status in the global community is determined not in
terms of its ability to resort to force, but rather in terms of advancing the
socio-economic development of its people in particular and the human race in
general.

We choose to focus on a more people centred world, on the socio-economic
advancement of our own people, the people of Africa and the developing world,
of the elimination of poverty and hunger for all the peoples of the world.

This can be seen in the structure and nature of our bilateral agreements and
engagements as well as the increasing role we are playing in tri-lateral and
multilateral relations. Most of these relations are now conducted in an
integrated fashion with other government departments, where foreign affairs
plays a co-ordinating and facilitative role ensuring that our foreign relations
do not remain abstract but address practical socio-economic needs. We therefore
are continuing in our efforts to build the necessary capacity to ensure that we
are equal to the task.

If we consider for example the status of our relations with some of the
influential nations of the South, including Brazil, China, India and Nigeria,
with whom we already have good political relations, we see much greater
emphasis on socio-economic development co-operation. In all the recent
engagements we have had with these countries, we have increasingly sought to
bolster the cordial political relations that exist between us with the
advancement of socio-economic co-operation to improve the lives of our people.
The interface between political solidarity and the practical manifestation of
benefits at the national level has been one of the key lessons that we have
learnt as a country.

In the time since we have re-entered global politics, we have also realised
that to remain relevant players we would need to persuade the international
community to support developing countries in efforts to devise and implement
national strategies for development and sustained economic growth. It is
important that our foreign policy agenda has social relevance, so that the gap
between the abstract world of policy and its practical manifestations begins to
close. Using platforms such as the India, Brazil, South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue
we have been able to create a Facility Fund for the Alleviation of Poverty and
Hunger. Each of the three member countries contributes one million United
States dollars annually, which is used for replicable projects for eradicating
poverty and hunger in developing countries by providing improved access to
education, health and sanitation, and food security.

The fact that we are starting to translate foreign policy outcomes from
global platforms such as IBSA, into programmes at the national level is a clear
demonstration of our understanding of the need for policies that are practical
and relevant.

Like any other government department, we are held accountable for what we
deliver. South Africa is a participatory democracy and as a department we are
committed to the objectives of accountability, transparency and probity by the
legitimate representatives of our people. This commitment is demonstrated
through the interaction that our department has with the Portfolio Committee in
the last two years. Briefings by our Director-General and senior officials to
the Portfolio Committee have resulted in a dynamic interaction amongst South
Africans on many pertinent foreign policy topics such as the resolution of the
conflict in Cote d'Ivoire; the fulfilment of the legitimate rights of the
people of the Saharawi Democratic People's Republic; on Iran; and on the
Non-Aligned Movement and the Democratic Republic of Congo, amongst others.

It is our intention therefore to continue and constantly improve on this
trend, particularly in the areas that are in the interests of South Africa and
which have international relevance, such as the New Partnership for Africa's
Development (Nepad).

Nepad constitutes a new approach to development on the African Continent, an
approach which supports African development initiatives with international
partnerships. This approach has received a vote of confidence at the United
Nations and we need to capitalise on this. Nepad, as members will be aware has
now been fully integrated in various United Nations programmes and plans of
action, particularly in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs).

The MDGs closely mirror our own vision 2014 and it is in our interest to
work within this global framework to ensure that we benefit from the collective
wisdom of the international community that can contribute towards realising the
vision of creating a better life for all. Various South African government
departments, supported and facilitated by the Department of Foreign Affairs,
have since the inception of Nepad, played a leading role and been closely
involved in the development and implementation of various priority
programmes.

We have also used our bilateral relations to interact with the developed
countries of the North to highlight the partnership role that they can play in
supporting key initiatives such as the fight against communicable and
infectious diseases, including HIV and AIDS. Support for Nepad from the
developed world and the business sector, with particular focus on the
implementation of infrastructure development projects, remains a high priority
and South Africa will continue to work actively to see the full implementation
of the many projects that have been started.

Given the extent to which we have promoted Nepad globally, it is urgent for
us to increase the understanding about Nepad amongst our own people. Ongoing
consultation with South African civil society and the private sector has been
underway since 2005 and the Nepad Implementation Strategy for South Africa
(NISSA) has been formulated. Further engagement with Nedlac and the business
sector needs to be given greater impetus and we are giving our focused
attention to this issue.

Both the Nepad Implementation Strategy for South Africa and Accelerated
Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) priorities are mutually
reinforcing and should enhance the pace and quality of the services we deliver
to our people.

Madam Speaker, honourable members

In deepening our own democracy and democracy in our region, we continue to
place great importance on regional integration. Regional co-operation and
integration in Southern Africa owes its origins to historical, economic,
political, social and cultural factors that have created strong bonds of
solidarity and unity among the peoples of Southern Africa.

Our vision of full regional integration was reaffirmed at the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) summit held in Lesotho in 2006. Here it
was agreed to set as targets: The formation of a Free Trade Area; the
completion of negotiations of the SADC Customs Union; and the completion of
negotiations of the SADC Common Market within a fifteen year period.

We are aware of the challenges associated with the integration programme,
including the full implications of SADC Free Trade Area and Custom Union's
ambitions, the full implementation the Trade Protocol in the region, as well as
the issue of overlapping custom union membership within SADC. These are without
a doubt serious challenges, but we will not be deterred from pursuing this
vision, because not only is it in the regional interest to do so, but also in
our own.

So much has been achieved in SADC in the past few decades to bring political
and economic stability to our neighbourhood. Therefore the crisis in Zimbabwe
poses a particular challenge to the region and efforts towards integration. As
the Minister has already stated, we will do everything in our power to support
President Mbeki in his efforts to help the Zimbabweans find a solution to their
problems.

As a region, we have a clear vision for the kind of future we wish to create
for future generations, which is why we believe that with the current will and
commitment that exists towards the regional programme, we will overcome the
obstacles we face, as indeed we overcame the destabilising effects of apartheid
in the region in the 1980s by forming the Southern African Development
Co-ordinating conference, SADC's predecessor.

Let us bear in mind that the ultimate aim of regional integration is the
creation of a more politically stable and economically prosperous region, which
is a key building block of a united Africa. Since our entry into the global
arena we have sought to work in partnership based on the recognition that the
problems we face as countries are far too complex for us to deal with
individually. How could we for example hope to negotiate alone on critical
international trade issues in the face of increasing protectionist tendencies
by the developed countries of the North? Our interests are best served by
working with other like-minded countries to establish co-ordinated negotiating
positions at global forums such as the World Trade Organisations (WTO).

Given that we have anchored our foreign policy agenda on the African
continent, SADC is a logical gateway for us into the continent and into the
African Union and its institutions. SADC is therefore an important platform for
us to lobby our positions to take forward to continental and international
negotiations. To prepare our positions and co-ordinate South Africa's
intervention in the integration agenda, we have established a task team of
senior officials from the departments of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Industry,
and the Treasury. The respective Ministers have also played a prominent role in
Ministerial engagements associated with this unfolding integration process.

We are mindful of the fact that South Africa has, up to now been slow in
filling its quota of seconded positions in SADC and this has had a negative
effect on the functioning of the regional body. We are closely looking at this
matter with the view to attracting people of a high calibre to serve on these
institutions and further demonstrate our commitment to the African Agenda.

As regards other multilateral obligations we are proud that South Africa
plays host to the prestigious Pan African Parliament (PAP). As members are
aware, we were bestowed the honour to host this prestigious African Union
institution, which is at the heart of the democratisation process in Africa, in
2004. As representatives of the African peoples, the Members of the Pan-African
Parliament play an important role in reflecting the wishes and aspirations of
the African people. As an advisory body, it has become an important platform
for discussing the most topical and pertinent issues on the African
continent.

As part of our bid to host the parliament we pledged to hold a continent
wide architectural design competition for the permanent home of the parliament.
All the work has been done and in April, along with the Minister of Public
Works, we launched the Competition for African Architects, to ensure that from
the very beginning, the parliament, that is the house of many voices and
reflective of the diversity of our continent is also housed in a building
reflecting Africa. We continue to work closely with the Department of Public
Works to ensure that we start construction in the latter part of this year.

Earlier this year, the Pan African Parliament convened a workshop on the
harmonisation of regional economic communities and regional parliamentary
forums. This workshop recommended, amongst others, that they should "move
expeditiously to establish mechanisms to engage citizens, civil society and
intergovernmental organisation in order to mobilise the voices of the people."
We need to play our part in supporting the PAP in its mandate as an institution
for entrenching democracy, by ensuring its popularisation and accessibility by
ordinary Africans.

Madame Speaker

As an activist for progressive change, South Africa together with other
progressive forces chooses the path of hope and solidarity, pursuing effective
and constructive dialogue among the peoples of the world based on mutual
interest, and a shared responsibility to the common challenges that confront
humanity.

South Africa endeavours to consolidate an agenda for the South, and to build
partnership with the North to forge a common vision for meeting the pressing
challenges faced by the global community, including poverty eradication, peace
and security, good governance and sustainable development. And recent
developments in Latin America and the Caribbean have captured our attention.
The emergence of progressive governments in that part of the world and the
values for which they stand has spurred us to increase our involvement in that
part of the world.

The countries of the South share similar experiences and have the same
wishes and aspirations for their people. The possibilities for co-operation
with individual countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region are
therefore immense. We have already undertaken a number of initiatives on which
are critical for the co-ordination of positions in multilateral forums.

To give impetus to these relations, we have actively sought to increase our
presence in that part of the world by opening a High Commission in
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in early 2007 and, together with the High
Commission in Kingston, Jamaica, these two missions now maintain responsibility
for most of the Caribbean Islands (Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados,
Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St
Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as Suriname).

In formulating South Africa's policy in relation to the emerging markets of
the Caribbean, it is important to strengthen relations and to develop common
positions on global issues such as access to the markets of the industrial
North, reform of international institutions, and the promotion of the
development agenda. In this regard, special emphasis is placed on how South
Africa and the rest of the African continent engage these countries in
promoting the ideals of the continent and the Diaspora to which the Minister
has already referred. We will therefore increase our focus on strengthening
relations with the Caribbean region.

The Fifth Joint Consultative Mechanism meeting between Cuba and South Africa
will be held in Cuba on 14 and 15 June 2007, while the Fifth Session of the
Joint Bilateral Commission will take place in South Africa later during this
year. Sixteen government departments are currently involved in projects with
Cuba, where exploring appropriate skills development programmes in a Joint
Initiative on Priority Skills Acquisition (Jipsa) context is being pursued.

In October 2006, the (Minister) Secretary for External Relations of the
Dominican Republic, Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso, visited South Africa and
held bilateral talks with his South African counterpart, Minister Dlamini Zuma.
They signed a Declaration of Intent in which they stated their intention to
undertake consultations, joint actions and projects on issues of common
interest. During the visit, Minister Morales Troncoso also announced his
country's decision to open a diplomatic Mission in South Africa in 2007.

In June 2006, Colombia's former Foreign Minister, Ms Carolina Barco, visited
South Africa for bilateral economic and political discussions with the Minister
Dlamini Zuma. Bilateral trade flow between Colombia and South Africa is
constant with the balance in favour of South Africa. South African
Breweries-Miller (SAB-Miller), Anglo American, Anglo Coal and Anglo-Gold
Ashanti are among the South African companies that have operations in
Colombia.

Following a visit from President Evo Morales from Bolivia to South Africa in
January 2006, a high-level South African delegation visited that country in
July 2006 to explore ways of furthering bilateral relations, as well as
assisting Bolivia with its constitutional process and in its minerals and
energy sectors. A Memorandum of Understanding on the Establishment of a
Consultative Mechanism was also signed. It is envisaged that the inaugural
meeting of this Mechanism will take place later during 2007, to coincide with
the opening of a diplomatic Mission of Bolivia in South Africa. The
Vice-President of Bolivia, Prof Alvaro Garcia Linera visited South Africa in
April 2007 and met with Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to give further
impetus to these initiatives.

In formulating South Africa's policy in relation to emerging markets, we
believe it is important to develop common positions on global issues such as
access to the markets of the industrial North, reform of international
institutions, and the promotion of the development agenda.

In this regard, we have been focusing on strengthening our relations with
other emerging markets in Central and Eastern Europe, with a focus on the
consolidation of the legal frameworks for the promotion of economic
relations.

The accession in May 2004 of five Central European countries (Czech
Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia) and the three Baltic
countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) as well as the accession of Romania
on 1 January 2007 to the European Union is expected to further influence South
Africa's political and economic relations with these countries, and becoming,
on the one hand, competitors in trade and beneficiaries of development aid, but
also allies in terms of the level of development, which is, at this stage
closer to that of South Africa than to most of the current United Nations (UN)
members. This dichotomy presents both challenges and opportunities to South
Africa in the design of its foreign relations with this new reality. In
formulating South Africa's policy in relation to the emerging markets of the
new European Union (EU) countries, we believe it is important to strengthen
relations and to develop common positions on global issues such as access to
the markets of the industrial West, reform of international institutions and
the promotion of the development agenda.

Madam Speaker, honourable members

We have described just some of the activities of the department in the
period under review. As you can see we have an expanding programme as our
diplomatic and economic bi-lateral relations increase. For us to fulfil these
responsibilities, and indeed for our country to meet our growth targets, we
require a sophisticated workforce with the skills suited for the tasks for the
achievement of our goals. We regard the Jipsa programme led by the Deputy
President as an important aspect of our work, to give impetus and substance to
the many bilateral agreements that we conclude in the course of our foreign
relations. Many of these agreements have come with offers and opportunities for
capacity development, which, until recently we have not fully exploited.

But in the last year alone, significant progress has been made to take up
offers for skills acquisition and capacity building programmes across a number
of Asian, Middle Eastern and European countries. Our missions abroad, as well
as foreign affairs officials have provided support to Deputy President
Mlambo-Ngcuka on foreign visits to promote both the AsgiSA and Jipsa
programmes.

We have received invaluable support from a number of countries including
Indonesia, Singapore, India, Australia, New Zealand, Japan South Korea,
Portugal, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Germany, amongst others. Large
numbers of students have been placed in these countries and some have
successfully completed their programmes in diverse areas such as business
process outsourcing, technical skills, research, science and technology,
small-medium micro enterprise (SMME) development and so forth. Without a doubt
these are valuable skills and capacities from which a growing economy such as
ours can benefit.

Two weeks ago, while accompanying the Deputy President on an official visit
to Germany, we met with a group of the most vital and impressive young people
from Southern Africa who were participating in a high level course at the
Daimler Chrysler factory in Stuttgart. It was an exciting experience to see
these young people, all graduates, receiving highly advanced training in a
variety of hi-tech fields in that organisation. We are most grateful to our
international partners for the exceptional support they have afforded us to
up-skill our young people to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Madam Speaker

South Africa's increasing role in international relations calls for a
capable and committed cadre of diplomats. The expansion of our representation
abroad, particularly in Africa, necessitates that we increase the capacity in
terms of numbers, and deepen our skills in both our political and economic
diplomacy.

In this regard, the department has put in place a structured approach to
address vacancies through two big annual recruitment drives, in January and
July, targeting vacancies across all levels and across all branches. These
drives allow us to fill some vacancies, but often we are not able to fill all
the vacancies that we have because of a general skills shortage experienced by
both the public and private sector.

In response to these constraints, the department has initiated programmes to
accelerate our cadet programme targeting the youth:

We have 43 young people that are currently being trained by the department
in collaboration with University of South Africa (Unisa) on our cadet programme
and a second group of approximately 50 young people will start in July. As part
of the broader government initiative to address the challenge of unemployed
youth, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) continues to take on young people in
our learnership programme, with the focus on preparing them for future
employment.

The recruitment drives also gives us the opportunity to acknowledge internal
talent through promotions. The timing of the recruitment drives is aligned to
the placement cycles of outgoing and returning officials and two-third of our
vacancies is filled by internal candidates.

The drive also allows the department to bring in new talent from outside. We
attract talent from within the Public Service and from other sectors of our
economy including the private sector, state-owned enterprises, universities and
non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

In line with our commitment to integrated governance, we also provide
training to employees in other departments in the areas of diplomatic protocol
and etiquette and foreign languages. I am glad to report that the demand for
this training is increasing dramatically.

Madam Speaker

At this point I would like to thank the honourable members on both sides of
the house for their support both during the good and difficult times.

My greatest appreciation goes to Minister Dlamini Zuma and Deputy Minister
Pahad for their constant support and leadership in this challenging
environment.

I would also like to specially thank our Director-General, who has one of
the most difficult jobs in the world. He has ensured that we achieve our
objectives and that we are always able to account for the promises we make in
this house, and he never fails to be professional and cheerful as he leads our
team of dedicated professionals. We thank them all, senior and junior, here and
abroad for their invaluable contribution.

Our participation in key international processes has broadened our
understanding of the challenges we face as a country and a member of the
community of nations. At the same time, our foreign engagements have allowed us
to learn valuable lessons in the quest for creating a better life for our
people and in attracting opportunities that would otherwise not be possible to
access. If we think of the recognition that South Africa has achieved from our
involvement in the United Nations Security Council, on the Human Rights
Council, in hosting and participating in key international processes where our
views are sought and valued, and of course in the prospect of the hosting the
2010 Soccer World Cup, then all our efforts are worth it.

In conclusion, I would like to recall the words of Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, on
Africa's regeneration. He said:

"[A] brighter day is rising upon Africa. Already I seem to see her chains
dissolved, her desert red with harvest, her Abyssinia and her Zululand the
seats of science and religion, reflecting the glory of the rising sun from the
spires of their churches and universities. Her Congo and her Gambian whitened
with commerce, her crowded cities sending forth the hum of business and all her
sons employed in advancing the victories of peace, greater and more abiding
than the spoils of war."

Let us never forget these words and the promise they hold as we tackle the
challenges of the next year.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
29 May 2007