DIRCO’s Embassies Crumble

Statement by Ryan Smith MP – DA Spokesperson on International Relations and Cooperation:

The South African High Commission to the United Kingdom(UK) closed without notice this week as its building, South Africa House in London’s Trafalgar Square, has so badly deteriorated under the weight of decades of neglect by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO).

South Africa House’s closure follows mounting reports that diplomatic staff cannot work in the building due to intermittent water supply, broken heating systems, a strong and persistent smell of urine in many rooms, and the gradual degradation of the building façade and entrance which local vendors say has never been maintained. It is reported that repairs to the building will now cost just under R70 million – money South African taxpayers could have saved had DIRCO embarked on regular maintenance to our country’s foreign assets.

Under the ANC’s stewardship, DIRCO has allowed one of the most prestigious items in our country’s property portfolio to fall into ruin.

The South African Embassy in The Hague, The Netherlands has been closed for just under a year for repair, yet locals have confirmed that no scaffolding has been erected and no workers have accessed the premises since its closure. The building is gathering dust. The South African foreign service remains in limbo in a temporary location since the Democratic Alliance (DA) visited the crumbling embassy building in November 2025.

Much like many of the ANC’s broken local municipalities, the eyesores that are South Africa’s embassies and high commissions stand as an international testament to the corruption and state failure of our government and its foreign service under a political party that has long abandonded its sense of duty to the people of the Republic, whether in or outside our borders.

The DA has long called for a reprioritisation of DIRCO’s spending to adequately staff a professional diplomatic corps and consular service, and maintain our country’s foreign assets as the backbone of a functioning foreign service. Instead, DIRCO Minister, Ronald Lamola, continues to fund expensive international litigation while siphoning money from the Department’s budget to provide millions in humanitarian aid to the ANC’s allies in Cuba.

South Africa House’s closure further corroborates the findings of the Auditor General’s 2024/25 Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR) which stated that DIRCO’s audit outcome had regressed due to the mismanagement of foreign assets which had rendered properties ‘uninhabitable’. This is the current state of South Africa’s foreign service – a shell of its former glory in the early days of our democracy.

For as long as DIRCO’s spending serves the ANC’s party political international alliances and our foreign policy is used as a mechanism to dog whistle to the ANC’s friends, South Africa’s foreign service will continue to crumble.

As a member of the Government of National Unity (GNU), the DA condemns the subversion of South Africa’s foreign policy by the ANC which has systemically hollowed out our diplomatic capacity and rendered us an embarrassment on the international stage. If DIRCO is the outward face of the South African government abroad, then it is wrinkled, haggard, and decrepit. Our perception abroad is surely not much different.