Dear Editor
In a sitting of the portfolio committee on International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) today, the Auditor General’s (AG) Budgetary Review and Recommendations Report (BRRR) revealed that DIRCO has financially regressed over the 2024/25 financial year, moving from an audit outcome of unqualified with findings to qualified with findings.
This financial regression is partly due to damning findings pertaining to DIRCO’s asset management process and register, particularly the management of state-owned properties abroad for diplomatic use.
According to the BRRR: “An additional concern identified through the mission audits relates to the poor state and condition of some of the state-owned immoveable properties where DIRCO is responsible for the upkeep of these properties.
The lack of maintenance of these properties over time have rendered some as uninhabitable and transferred officials are then required to be accommodated in rental properties.”
The DA will be submitting parliamentary questions to DIRCO Minister, Ronald Lamola, demanding why his department’s foreign asset management continues to fail to maintain South Africa’s foreign diplomatic properties and why, to date, there is still no consequence management for the delinquent ambassadors and diplomatic officials who have allowed our foreign assets, and our international image by extension, to rot as a result.
The subsequent rental of international properties to house diplomatic officials, due to the uninhabitability of our own dilapidated international assets, is also milking the South African taxpayer.
Diplomatic officials continue to act with complete impunity as they vandalise rented properties abroad at the taxpayers’ expense, treating their deployment as a paid holiday of debauchery on a maroon passport, rather than a crucial and prestigious posting with critical objectives.
In April this year, the DA called on Minister Lamola to fire South African diplomat, Adv David Kweli Nkosi, who had been redeployed as political counsellor to the South African Embassy in Amman, Jordan, despite owing DIRCO just under R800 000,00 for damages incurred to rented properties due to vandalism in Austria and India where he was previously deployed.
To date, there has been no response from the Department on this egregious and embarrassing matter.
DIRCO’s BRRR comes just days after reports that Dutch residents have reported the South African embassy in The Hague to the local municipal council for the building’s rapid decline including over 30 broken windows.
The DA has also received reports that priceless artefacts and items such as paintings, sculptures, and historical pieces are going missing in many of our embassy and high commission properties and residences. It is clear that South Africa’s once prestigious diplomatic presence is quickly being eroded and looted under 30 years of DIRCO under the ANC.
Further concerns highlighted by the AG pertaining to the BRRR include repeated failure to prevent irregular expenditure, a continued lack of consequence management, and the poor quality of financial reporting. What is particularly concerning is DIRCO’s inability to migrate to modern information technology systems due to persistent delays in the IT modernisation project.
This has not only hampered the Department’s ability to synchronise data systems at diplomatic hubs in Pretoria, London, and Washington, but leaves South Africa’s data vulnerable to cyberattacks which severely compromises our intelligence and broader IT capacity.
South Africa cannot execute an economic diplomacy agenda to grow the economy and create much needed jobs or run a competent foreign service while Minister Lamola allows DIRCO to regress financially, be overrun by party cadres in our embassies, and be hollowed out as a once proud government institution.
It is clear that DIRCO’s priorities are not aligned with the needs of the South African people and South Africa’s international image, much like our embassy buildings, is decaying as a result. This is not how our country deserves to be seen on the international stage.
Regards
Ryan Smith MP
DA Spokesperson on International Relations and Cooperation