Please find attached sound by Ryan Smith MP.
A reply to a Democratic Alliance parliamentary question posed to the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), Ronald Lamola, has revealed that the cumulative estimated cost of renovations to South Africa’s embassy buildings and foreign assets currently stands at R830 million, according to condition reports over a period of three years.
The cost of renovations to foreign assets belonging to the South African High Commission to the United Kingdom (UK) currently stands at roughly R170 million, while the cost of renovations to foreign assets belonging to the South African Embassy in the Netherlands currently stands at roughly R110 million.
These figures have laid bare the shocking state of maintenance neglect within South Africa’s foreign assets and buildings which have suffered under decades of mismanagement and warped financial priorities under the African National Congress (ANC). Much like the local municipalities run by the ANC here in South Africa, our embassies are now a shell of their former selves.
The vitality of South Africa’s embassies, which should be the backbone of our economic diplomacy agenda and our nation’s proud outward face to the world, have been systemically underfunded and undermined by our government whose international priorities lie in appeasing the ANC’s international allies rather than advancing our national interest.
For context, it is estimated that between 2012 and 2022, the ANC spent R1,4 billion on aid and agreements with Cuba – a diplomatic relationship that has done nothing more than secure some of our country’s tobacco supply. This money could have been spent on building and maintaining our key diplomatic infrastructure, the cost of which has now reached crisis levels. The ANC sought to again renew these agreements with Cuba in parliament just last month.
South African diplomacy will never advance for as long as the ANC prioritises its political whims in DIRCO instead of what South Africa truly needs. The DA will continue to fight for a reprioritised DIRCO budget that plants our foreign policy and foreign service at the centre of our growth agenda and away from the ANC’s party-political programme. South Africa will never be taken seriously on the international stage until we enact a consistent and genuinely non-aligned foreign policy with a keen focus on economic diplomacy.
As a member of the Government of National Unity (GNU), the DA advocates for a foreign policy that places the national interest ahead of party-political allegiances. Taxpayer money that funds DIRCO’s budget is not meant to keep the ANC’s friends afloat, it is meant to fund a professional and capable foreign service that grows our economy and creates jobs. We can only do this when DIRCO’s budget is rightfully spent on building and maintaining our embassies, not propping up failed dictatorships abroad.